Birdsong after a storm
by K.C.Dragonfly
Summary: Following a tragic event, Ecklie takes action against Grissom's laissez-faire approach to supervising. Will Grissom's loss be Catherine's gain, or will Ecklie's little experiment fail? Set circa season 5; an alternative to the team being split up. Eventual Cara
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all! **

**I am still working on More than Skin Deep, but this idea would not stop bugging me. I will continue to update both.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

**x X x**

They fidgeted, scanning the unnecessarily spacious office with discomfort. Ecklie may have only been appointed Lab Director a few weeks ago, but he had wasted no time in making himself at home in here.

"What do you suppose he wants?" Grissom asked at last. Catherine, the less nervy of the two, offered a half-hearted shrug.

"I'm sure we'll find out in good time." She said, casting her eyes lazily over the bookcase to her right.

Sure enough, the door swung open and Conrad Ecklie stepped inside, taking a moment to appraise them both before slinking behind his desk and dropping into the leather chair.

"Thanks for coming, guys." He said, folding his hands on the desk. Grissom narrowed his eyes suspiciously, offering no response.

"What can we do for you, Conrad?" Catherine asked, straightening up in her seat.

He pursed his lips, flicking his gaze between the two of them for a long moment, before settling back in his chair, causing the aged leather to creak.

"You're both aware of what happened to Sandy Matthews."

It wasn't a question. The swing shift CSI's suicide had been the talk of the lab for weeks.

Catherine and Grissom both dropped their heads, nodding in agreement.

"In light of the circumstances surrounding her death, the Sheriff, Undersheriff and myself have been in regular talks regarding staff welfare within LVPD. Sheriff Atwater has been very clear: he does not want something like this to happen again within his police station or the lab."

"Nobody wants this to happen again." Grissom pointed out with a soft frown.

"No. And that's why the Sheriff tasked me with reviewing the current welfare procedures we have in place, with a view to instigating a new system that will allow staff to have more of an opportunity to speak up if there's something going on in their lives that they require support with."

"Sounds like a good idea." Catherine shrugged.

"I've already spoken to dayshift and swing supervisors and they're keen to go ahead with it." Ecklie continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So, effective immediately, we are going to be introducing RWRs – Regular Welfare Reviews. This will take place in the form of a weekly five-minute catch-up and a monthly half-hour meeting conducted one-on-one between the supervisor and each member of staff in their team. Guidance will be sent out to all of the supervisors today regarding how to structure these meetings and also advising them of the kind of warning flags to look out for and what to do if they have any concerns for a member of staff."

"Conrad," Grissom interrupted the tirade, holding up his hands. "Grave is always busy. When are we supposed to find the time to do this?"

"Make time." The Lab Director asserted firmly. "This has come down from the top, Gil. There will be no getting out of it and no sitting on it for weeks like you do with your evaluations. The Sheriff has already approved this scheme and he wants it to be a success."

"Sandy was on swing shift." Grissom pointed out tersely, as if that should make a difference.

"So what?" Ecklie placed his hands flat on the desk and fixed him with a stern look. "You're saying that something like that couldn't happen on your team?"

"No." Grissom squared his shoulders defensively. "It wouldn't. I know my guys."

Ecklie scoffed, shaking his head.

"Do you really?" He drawled sardonically, reaching into his In-tray and producing a folder. "As part of my review of the current system, I carried out an audit into _all_ of the staff evaluations for the last five years."

Catherine felt Grissom shift beside her and shot him a concerned look, sensing what was about to come.

"And you know what I found?" The director continued, opening the file. "There are some serious gaps in your supervision of certain members of your team."

"What gaps..."

"_Specifically_," Ecklie continued before he could finish his question, "CSIs Stokes and Sidle."

Catherine shifted her gaze between the two men uncomfortably. Grissom's jaw was set and he was staring with such intensity across the desk that it appeared he was trying to set Ecklie's shirt on fire with his eyes.

"Grissom's a good supervisor." She jumped in, attempting to defend him before he could say anything foolish. "He's just not good at documenting it."

"Their files are abysmal." Ecklie spat, tossing the list of discrepancies he'd found in front of them. "There are whole sections of their health and welfare information that you've ignored. Sidle doesn't even have a next-of-kin recorded. What are we supposed to do if she's ever injured at work?"

"Okay." Grissom frowned, pushing his chair back. "I'll speak to them and get their files updated. Are we done?"

"No." Ecklie said sternly, halting the CSI's attempts to leave. "In light of your clear failings, I've made the decision to pull your supervisory authority over Stokes and Sidle."

"You're taking Nick and Sara off the team?" Catherine asked, startled.

"You can't do that." Grissom said, his voice unusually low and his blue eyes practically smouldering.

"Actually, I can." Ecklie countered. "But that's not what I'm doing. They will stay on grave, for now, but you are no longer going to be responsible for them."

"Then who is?" Gil asked, his expression softening almost imperceptibly.

Ecklie flicked his gaze to the other person in the room, who had already begun to put the pieces together and realised for the first time why she had been summoned to this meeting in the first place.

"Me?" She confirmed, raising an eyebrow.

"I know that you applied for the Day Shift Supervisor position and didn't get it." He said, barely disguising the smirk on his lips. "Well, now's your chance to prove your worth."

"You're giving Nick and Sara to Catherine?" Grissom scowled, the softness vanishing from his face once again. Ecklie shifted his attention from Catherine back to Gil.

"You will continue to head up the grave shift, so officially you are still their supervisor and for simplicity sake you'll still be in charge of assignments. But, for the time being, Catherine will take over direct responsibility for CSIs Stokes and Sidle. She will be in charge of checking their case reports, staff evaluations, updating their files with the correct information and carrying out any necessary disciplinary action." He explained. "She will also be responsible for the new Regular Welfare Reviews."

"What about Warrick and Greg?" Grissom asked.

"Their files were in better shape, so you can continue supervising them for now, and of course you're still Catherine's supervisor." Conrad sat forward, his eyes glimmering with something that Grissom couldn't quite read. "Take this as a warning, Gil. Any further discrepancies in your paperwork and I will pull the rest of your team from you as well."

Turning back to Catherine, he presented her with a paperwork-laden ring-binder.

"This has all the information you need regarding the supervisor role – it should provide you with everything you need to know about your new responsibilities; but if you have any questions, you know where I am."

"Thank you." She said hoarsely, accepting the file.

"Obviously, in light of your increased responsibilities, there will be a temporary adjustment to your salary, which has already been approved by the Sheriff. Keep an eye on your payslip and if there are any issues, just let me know."

"Okay." She nodded, resisting the urge to look at Grissom. She could feel his gaze burning into the side of her face, but she couldn't stand to see the hurt that was undoubtedly hiding behind the anger in his eyes.

"Good." Ecklie sat back, a satisfied smirk on his lips. "Any questions from either of you?"

"Why are you doing this?" Grissom asked, a mix of venom and bewilderment in his voice. Ecklie leant forward again, meeting his gaze.

"Sandy Matthews died because her supervisor was completely unaware of what was going on in her personal life." He stated, his smile fading for the first time. "This is my lab now and I will _not_ let another CSI die needlessly because of poor supervision."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for all the reviews so far :) I promise sulky-Grissom isn't going to be around forever, although there is precedent for him behaving this way in the show! **

**x X x**

"Grissom!" Catherine called, running down the corridor after him. Once Ecklie dismissed them, he had barely spared her a glance before striding down the hall at pace.

"Hey, Grissom!" She repeated, finally catching up with him as he stalked into his office. "Slow down, will you?"

Stopping abruptly in the middle of the room, he spun around to face her, his face inflamed.

"You agreed to this?" He asked, visibly flabbergasted by the turn of events.

"Well, it didn't seem like I had much choice." She pointed out.

"You could have said no."

"And let him transfer Sara and Nick onto another team?" She countered, taking a step towards him. "You _know_ that this isn't my fault. I've warned you time and time again about your lax attitude towards paperwork."

He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"This has nothing to do with me being lazy with paperwork. This is Ecklie flexing his muscles at my expense."

Catherine's jaw twitched.

"Sandy Matthews is dead." She pointed out. "And if her supervisor had known what was going on in her life, she might still be alive."

"Nick and Sara aren't suicidal." Grissom stated matter-of-factly.

"I certainly hope not!" Catherine agreed earnestly. "But that doesn't mean they don't have things going on in their lives that they need support with, things that their supervisor should be aware of."

"If they needed my help, they would ask for it." He asserted, holding up his hands to dismiss the conversation and moving behind his desk.

"No, they wouldn't." She argued amidst a choked out laugh. "Nick doesn't talk about his feelings and Sara ... she doesn't talk about anything outside of work. It's like pulling teeth trying to get anything remotely personal put of either of them; which is probably why their files are so vacant."

"Then surely that's on them, not me." He shrugged sinking into his seat.

"You're the supervisor, Gil." She rolled her eyes impatiently at his reluctance to accept her point. "It's your job to draw information out of them, whether they want to offer it up or not. And if you're not prepared to push them to talk, then I will."

Grissom eyed her carefully.

"You once said that if you got a promotion you wanted it to be on your own merit, not because of my failings." He reminded her, quirking an eyebrow. "What changed?"

"That was four years ago." She shrugged, deflecting the question. "And technically this isn't a promotion; it's a temporary increase of duties."

Grissom stared at her for a long moment, apparently assessing her motives, before walking over to his filing cabinet and extracting two folders. Shuffling back to his desk, he wordlessly offered them to her, his expression cold.

She took them, noting that they were Nick and Sara's personnel files. Meeting his gaze, she nodded slowly.

"You know that we're going to have to explain this to the team." She stated carefully, pursing her lips. "Are you going to have my back?"

As she uttered the words, she was suddenly reminded of the last time she asked him that question. Ironically, that situation had also involved Nick and Sara, along with a dead showgirl and an obsessed suspect. On that occasion, Grissom hadn't hesitated before confirming that he always had her back.

This time, she wasn't even sure she wanted to hear his answer.

x X x

"Hey guys," Sara greeted, tagging on to the back of the group as they made their way down the corridor. "You get paged too?"

"Hey Sara, yeah we did." Nick agreed with a frown. "Hey, you have any idea what this is about?"

"No, I just know that I was to come to Grissom's office before shift for a team meeting."

"You think something's happened?" Greg asked, concern seeping into his voice for the first time. He wasn't technically a CSI yet, but it had felt so nice to be considered part of the team that he hadn't even thought about the reason for this impromptu meeting.

"I don't know." Nick frowned. "This all feels kind of formal for my liking."

"I'm sure it's nothing; probably some new departmental policy." Warrick shrugged as they reached the office.

Sharing a pensive look with the rest of the group, Nick rapped on the door and pushed it open.

Upon their arrival en mass, Grissom and Catherine ended their hushed conversation.

"Hey guys," Nick greeted, apparently declaring himself spokesman for the team. "You wanted to speak to us?"

"Yes, have a seat." Grissom agreed, giving nothing away with his demeanour.

The four of them stared at the two chairs in front of the desk for a second, before Warrick and Nick gestured for Sara and Greg to sit down, while they loitered behind.

"What's going down?" Warrick asked, resting his hands on the back of Sara's seat.

Catherine, who was lurking behind Grissom, shot the boss a look; but after his brief greeting he had taken to staring intently at the desk and didn't appear inclined to take control of this conversation from here. Rolling her eyes, she straightened up and cleared her throat.

"There are a couple of things that we needed to talk to you guys about." She began cryptically, internally searching for an appropriate starting point. "I know you're all aware of what happened to Sandy."

The all nodded in agreement as a sad mood crossed the office.

"Well, following talks with the Sheriff and Undersheriff, Ecklie has introduced a new staff welfare programme, in an effort to prevent anything like this from happening again."

"What kind of programme?" Nick asked somewhat uncomfortably.

Catherine moved around the desk and perched on the edge in front of Sara.

"Once a month, every CSI and lab tech will have a half-hour, one-on-one meeting with their supervisor – Ecklie called them Regular Welfare Reviews, or RWRs. There will also be weekly five minute catch-ups to follow up on any ongoing issues."

"Don't we kind of do that already?" Sara asked with a frown.

"This isn't work related." Catherine clarified. "It has nothing to do with your ongoing cases or your performance stats. It's an opportunity for you guys to discuss any issues that are going on in your personal lives."

"Come on." Nick scoffed. "You expect us to sit down and divulge details of our private lives to you guys?"

Finally, Grissom looked up from his desk and met Catherine's gaze. They had expected this and they could have guessed that Nick would be the first to reject the idea. Again, it was Catherine who spoke.

"Nick ... Sandy Matthews committed suicide because there were things going on in her life, things that her supervisor could have helped with if he'd known about them. This scheme isn't designed to pry into your lives; it's just in place so that _if_ there is something going on, we can keep an eye on it and provide support where it's needed."

"So, it's a prevention mission." Greg paraphrased. "Stopping problems before they get out of hand?"

"Exactly." Cath smiled, glad that one of them seemed to be on board at least. "If there is something going on, we can monitor it and make sure it doesn't get on top of you."

"Sounds simple enough." Warrick nodded approvingly.

"Do you guys have any questions about that?" Grissom asked, the tone of his voice suggesting that he really hoped they didn't.

"Yeah," Nick shifted from one foot to the other behind Greg's chair. "So, what exactly are we supposed to tell you? Anything that might impact us at work?"

Catherine exhaled.

"You can come to us about anything you feel you want support with, or you want us to know." She repeated calmly. "We're not going to beat it out of you, it's your call how much or little you tell us."

"Does this ... information go in our files?" Sara asked, speaking for the first time.

"No." Cath replied. "We'll document the fact that the meetings have taken place, but whatever you tell us will remain confidential."

Sara nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. However, Catherine wasn't quite finished.

"Of course, there are some restrictions to that confidentiality." She pursed her lips. "If we thought that you were at risk of being hurt, or hurting yourself, then we would need to report that to someone. And if there was a criminal act going on, or likely to happen, we'd have to follow procedure."

The team all nodded in understanding.

"Any other questions?" Grissom pressed when the room fell quiet.

"Yeah." Warrick straightened up. "So, are you both going to be carrying out these meetings?"

Catherine turned to Grissom, who was now staring at her through narrowed eyes.

"Well," she began when it was clear that he was also going to leave this entirely up to her. "That's the other thing that we needed to talk to you about. While reviewing the current welfare procedure, Ecklie carried out an audit of all the staff evaluations over the last five years and he identified a few ... discrepancies."

She sent a pointed look at Grissom, which the rest of the team couldn't help but notice.

"Apparently, I have been lax in my supervision of some of you." Gil ground out sullenly between his teeth, sensing the question that was hanging unasked in the room.

"Ecklie identified some serious gaps in some of our team's personnel files – Sara's and Nick's, in particular." Catherine elaborated.

The two CSIs both looked up, startled.

"Why ours?" Nick asked, sharing a concerned glance with the brunette.

"Oh, it's nothing that you two have done wrong." Catherine assured him, sending another scowl in Grissom's direction. "But, Ecklie feels that Grissom's supervision of you has been sub-par, so much so that he's temporarily assigning you both a new supervisor – me."

She assessed their reactions carefully. Nick squared his shoulders slightly, but nodded his assent. Sara shot a questioning look at Grissom, who was studiously avoiding her gaze.

"So, you'll be in charge of our welfare meetings?" The brunette asked after a moment.

"Yes, but I'll also be responsible for all other aspects of your supervision – your evaluations, case reviews, leave requests..."

"For how long?" Nick interrupted, also looking to Grissom for answers. He shrugged.

"That will be up to Ecklie."

"What's going on here?" The Texan pressed. "Is this Ecklie's way of forcing you out; is that it?"

"Nick," Grissom held up his hands, although he really didn't have an answer for the young man. "Ecklie's doing what he feels is best for the lab. We just need to play along and ... see what happens."

That fact seemed to depress the team somewhat and the scrutiny was making Grissom uncomfortable, so he cleared his throat and stood up.

"If there are no more questions..." he waited and nobody spoke, "then we'll get on with assignments. Sara and Greg, you two have a 419 in Mount Charleston. Nick and Warrick, you're with me."

The guys shared a quietly despondent look as they accepted their assignments and made to leave. Catherine hopped off the desk.

"Sara, Nick – I'll catch up with you two later."

They both waved a hand in agreement as they sloped out with the rest of the team, leaving the supervisors alone again.

"Well, that could have gone worse." Catherine exhaled. Granted, they hadn't exactly been jumping for joy; but she chose to put that down to their loyalty towards Grissom, rather than any particular reluctance to answer to her.

Grissom's expression remained stoic, giving nothing away as to whether he agreed or disagreed with that statement.

"Well." He stated in an unsettlingly calm voice. "They're your problem now."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the faves/follows/reviews so far! Hope you like this one**

**x X x**

"So," Greg twisted in the car seat to face her. "What do you think about having Catherine as your supervisor?"

Sara shrugged wordlessly, keeping her gaze trained on the road ahead.

"What is there to think about?" She asked flippantly when he didn't retract his gaze. "It doesn't seem that we get a say in it."

"Do you think Nick's right?" Greg continued with a small frown. "That this is just Ecklie's way of forcing Grissom out of the department?"

"I don't know." She set her jaw, unconsciously mirroring his expression. "I guess we just have to go along with it for now and see what happens."

Sensing that he wasn't going to get anything further out of her, he faced forward again.

"It's not fair." He huffed after a period of silence.

"What's not fair?" She sighed.

"You get to sit and pour your heart out to Catherine, who'll offer support and comfort and actually help you." He sulked, slinking down in his seat. "All I'm going to get from Grissom is riddles and Shakespearean quotes."

x X x

"I'm telling you man," Nick hissed. "There's something else going on here."

"You're paranoid." Warrick shot back. The pair of them continued to cast furtive glances at Grissom as they worked, lest he should overhear their speculating; but he was happily preoccupied examining the blood pattern soaking into the carpet and remained oblivious to their presence in the room.

"Paranoid?" Nick scowled. "Grissom isn't allowed to supervise me and Sara because of _paperwork_? I don't buy that."

"So what if Ecklie is trying to force him out?" Warrick conceded. "He won't manage it. Catherine wouldn't let that happen."

"I don't know." Nick pursed his lips. "She didn't exactly seem to be fighting his corner tonight."

"She's probably just pissed at having to clean up his mess, again." Warrick snorted. "Look, Catherine's fine. Just play along and this will all sort itself out in no time. Don't sweat it."

Nick didn't answer the comment, but the frown embedding itself on his forehead suggested that he didn't entirely agree with the sentiment.

x X x

"Okay," Catherine exhaled, dropping heavily into her chair. "Thanks for coming; I know you're both busy with your cases."

Nick and Sara both shrugged awkwardly. They hadn't really come out of any desire to do so; more out of a feeling that they didn't have a choice. She, however, chose to take their silence as willing complicity and continued.

"I've been going over the supervisor handbook. It turns out that there are _a lot_ of things that Grissom doesn't do that he's supposed to."

Sara's lips twitched into a smile at the frustrated edge to her voice, but she elected to keep her comments to herself.

"So, since Ecklie is going to be watching us like a hawk, we are going to play by the rules. All of the rules."

"Which means what, exactly?" Nick sat forward, resting his hands on his knees.

"For one: I want to see preliminary reports on all your cases at the end of each shift." She stated.

"But that won't even be enough time for the lab to have analysed the evidence." Nick pointed out. "How can we write a report on our evidence if we don't know what it's telling us yet? It's not going to be accurate."

Catherine opened her mouth to speak, but Sara beat her to it.

"It's more of a way of keeping everybody in the loop, really." She explained, turning in her seat to face her companion. "You just explain what you think the evidence is saying, and re-evaluate as you go along. Think of it as a written train-of-thought."

When both occupants blinked at her, she shrugged awkwardly.

"We used to have to submit them every shift when I worked in San Francisco. Sometimes, it actually helps you to get your ideas straight by getting it down in black and white. Then, you can disregard theories as you go."

"Well put." Catherine nodded, pleasantly surprised by the brunette's apparent co-operation on this matter. She tended to forget sometimes that Las Vegas was not the only lab Sara had ever worked in.

Then again, Nick worked in the Dallas Crime Lab for a year before coming to Vegas, so he should have no such excuse either.

"I also want to sit down with each of you one-to-one to get your personnel files in order." Cath continued, deciding that the subject of preliminary reports was closed. "Ecklie wasn't kidding about them – they are significantly lacking in areas."

"When?" Nick asked, visibly irritated that his previous argument had been unceremoniously shot down.

Catherine chose to ignore the scowl on his face as she answered without hesitation.

"Tonight."

x X x

She knew it was stupid to be nervous; after all, it was just paperwork. But she couldn't help it, she had a sinking feeling that she was not going to enjoy this meeting.

She was fidgeting in the locker room when Nick drifted in and she turned to face him, attempting to establish from his expression how it had gone, but he was giving nothing away.

"Hey," she greeted as casually as she could.

"Hey." He nodded in the direction of Catherine's office. "You're up."

She chewed on her lip for a moment, trying to scrutinise him.

"How'd it go?" She asked, trying to sound blasé.

"Fine." He shrugged evasively. "She just needed to fill in some boxes."

"Okay." She watched him as he toyed with something in his locker for a moment before skulking back out without once making eye-contact with her.

Taking a deep breath, she followed him out.

x X x

"Okay. Round two." Catherine said, more to herself really, as she closed the door and sank into her seat in front of Sara's open file.

The blonde appeared mildly on edge, but Sara couldn't decide whether that was because her meeting with Nick hadn't gone too well or it was just the stress of her new responsibilities getting to her already.

"First of all, we need to fill in some of your personal information, which Grissom apparently didn't think was important."

Sara pursed her lips, biting back a smile at her clipped tone.

"Then, there's some general welfare information which Ecklie wants us to complete. So." Catherine frowned for a second, scanning the first page. "Next of kin?"

"I don't have one." Sara answered calmly, glancing away. Catherine looked up, surprise written on her face. She had thought that would be an easy one to get out of the way.

"What about your parents?"

"Nope." Sara said tensely, keeping her gaze averted. She could feel Catherine's eyes on her for a long, uncomfortable moment, before she quietly moved on.

"Primary Care Physician?"

"Dr Marlon, Healthcare Partners – the one on West Oakey Boulevard."

Cath nodded, scribbling the name down.

"Health conditions?"

"No."

"Allergies?"

"Penicillin."

Catherine quirked a curious eyebrow, but duly noted the information down.

"Medications?"

"Why?"

Surprised by the break to their rhythm, she looked up to find Sara watching her with suspicion.

"In case anything happens to you at work and you need medical attention." She explained with a soft frown.

Sara stared at her for a few seconds, before sinking her gaze off to the side.

"Sertraline."

Catherine slowly wrote it down, continuing to watch her colleague from beneath her lashes as she did so. Somewhere in the back of her mind, alarm bells started to go off at the news that Sara was taking anti-depressants, but she silenced them for the time being.

"Okay." She said, scanning the main page of information to satisfy herself that she had filled everything in.

Everything except next of kin, at least. She would circle back to that later. Turning to the next page, she prepared to launch into the 'welfare' part of her file.

"So, how are you?"

"What?" Sara blinked, seemingly startled by the question.

"How are you?" Catherine repeated, bemused. "How are things at home?"

Even as she was asking the question, she could see Sara's defences starting to creep up.

"Fine." Came the predictably blunt response.

Turning to Sara's most recent evaluation, she quickly scanned it and raised an eyebrow.

There was simply nothing personal in it at all. That fact, coupled with Sara's cagey demeanour, was not filling her with confidence. Deciding to abandon the paperwork for the time being, Catherine folded her hands across it and fixed Sara with a questioning look.

"Sara, what do you and Grissom usually discuss in your meetings?"

"Work."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Well, does he ever ask you about what's going on outside work? Your personal life?"

"No."

Catherine's expression must have belayed her annoyance at the answer, as Sara choked out an embittered laugh.

"What? Do you really want to know that my car payments are due and I need a bigger flat?"

"Sure, if that's what's on your mind." Cath said, unfazed by the outburst as she made a brief note of something in her notes. "You moving?"

"I wish." Sara scoffed.

Catherine looked up, narrowing her eyes.

"Are you worried about money?" She asked carefully. Sara met her gaze over the desk. She didn't offer a verbal response, but the look on her face was sufficient for Catherine.

"Sara, I know where you live and I know how much you earn." The older woman pointed out gently.

It was true, CSI Level Threes weren't exactly on extravagant salaries, but there was still no reason that Sara should be living in a studio apartment in a sketchy part of town. Unless, of course, there was a reason that she just didn't know about...

"You don't strike me as the gambling type." She offered delicately, hoping that Sara would understand what she was getting it.

The brunette shifted, clearly uncomfortable with this line of questioning.

"I don't want this to go on record." She mumbled eventually.

Catherine pursed her lips, both pleasantly surprised and mildly concerned by the silent admission that there was indeed something Sara was hiding from her. Capping her pen, she placed it on the desk between them.

"So tell me off the record."

Sara looked to the pen, then to Catherine's face.

Finally, she let her gaze fall away and Catherine thought that she'd lost their brief connection, when the young woman spoke.

"My mother's in a care home." She stated quietly. "The fees can run pretty steep."

Catherine exhaled, leaning back in her chair. That wasn't what she had been expecting. However, it did go some way to explaining why Sara had no next of kin. After taking a minute to gather her thoughts, she sat forward again and folded her hands in front of her lips.

"Is there anyone else who can help? Siblings, or other relatives? Or state funding?"

Sara was shaking her head as she spoke, although she continued to stare at the ground.

"My brothers are ... AWOL. There is some state funding, but the application process is so complicated. They recommend you use a solicitor or financial advisor, but that all costs money as well."

Her voice had fallen soft and Catherine could have sworn that she spotted a couple of silent tears escaping her dark eyes. She hated having to push her when she was clearly uncomfortable talking about this, but all kinds of red flags were suddenly going off in her head and she needed to settle them before she could let this drop.

Licking her lips, she braced herself to ask a delicate question.

"Are you in debt?"

"No." Sara assured her, finally looking up. "It just gets a bit tight some months. If my car breaks down or something happens, I ..." she shrugged, suggesting that she wasn't prepared to go into further detail.

Catherine nodded; a silent reprieve, for now.

"Are we done?" Sara asked, sweeping a hand up to wipe away the tears that were attempting to creep down her cheeks.

Catherine glanced down at the page full of empty boxes.

"Yeah," she answered softly. "We're done."

The boxes didn't matter.

She had found out in fifteen minutes what Gil hadn't in five years.


	4. Chapter 4

She tapped on the open door, peeping around it into the office.

"Hi Conrad, you busy?"

"Catherine." The lab director greeted breezily, barely tearing his gaze from his paperwork. "What can I do for you?"

Coming fully into the room, she nudged the door closed and tentatively approached the desk. She had been in two minds about approaching him for help with this matter, but it was the most direct way for her to solve the problem that had been playing on her mind all day. She may not particularly like the man, but he did know his stuff when it came to financial rights.

"I have a question I was hoping you can help with." She explained her presence cryptically.

"Is this about your new role?" He asked sitting back.

"In a sense." She agreed, twisting her hands in front of her. "It's about Sara."

For a brief second, a look of frustration crossed his face, but he quickly covered it behind a mask of indifference.

"Whatever she's done, it's your responsibility to deal with it."

"No." She frowned, shaking her head. "No, it's nothing like that. I just need some advice on a matter pertaining to her."

"Okay." He agreed, somewhat cagily, as he finally fixed his full attention on her. Cath took a deep breath, debating how much information to share.

"Sara has informed me that she is currently responsible for paying for her mother's care home fees. Now, I believe there may be tax breaks available for people who are responsible for their parents' care, but I'm not sure how it works?"

Ecklie was staring wordlessly at her and she wasn't sure whether to take that as a good sign or a bad one.

"Sara told you that?" He asked at last, raising one curious eyebrow.

"Well, yeah – I was updating her file and ... it came up." She shrugged awkwardly, hoping he wouldn't press her for further details of the conversation. She felt bad enough for breaching Sara's confidence like this, especially so soon into their new working relationship.

"Do you know if she ever told Grissom?"

"I don't think so." She shifted.

In truth, she knew damn well that Sara hadn't told Grissom. It was nowhere in her file and Sara's behaviour during her sheepish disclosure suggested it was something she had not shared with anyone at work. However, in spite of her own current animosity towards Gil, she didn't want to drop him further in it with Ecklie.

"I guess I just asked the right questions." She offered meekly when his expression darkened at the admission.

He blinked at her for a moment. He hadn't really expected much to come from this little trial, but it seems he might have made the right call after all.

"If she claims her mother as a dependant, she can claim up to $3000 in expenses towards her care." He stated at last.

Wheeling himself over to his filing cabinet, he rummaged about for a moment, eventually producing a form and a small pamphlet. He handed them to her and she noted that the pamphlet was for a charity which evidently supported members of law enforcement and other emergency services.

Noticing her interest in it, Ecklie cleared his throat.

"That charity supports emergency personnel regarding matters in their personal lives, including care responsibilities for other family members. They can also provide legal support in place of a solicitor, if she requires it."

"Thank you." Catherine frowned, tucking it protectively inside the forms he had also given her. "I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

Having obtained the information she needed, she offered her thanks and turned to leave.

"Catherine." He called, waiting for her to turn back to face him.

When she did, he was wearing a satisfied little smile.

"Nice work."

x X x

"Yeah?" She hummed at the soft tap on the door, not even bothering a glance up to see who it was. It was still technically before shift was due to start, so she expected it would be Grissom coming to consult her on assignments.

"Hey," Sara stepped in, pursing her lips. "Have you got a minute?"

Catherine's head shot up, a mix of surprise and relief to see the brunette standing there.

"Of course."

She had actually been on the brink of paging her young colleague anyway, so this was fortuitous.

Sara shuffled into the small office, flexing her hands anxiously.

"I just wanted to apologise, for this morning." She said, her eyes darting everywhere but at Catherine.

"For what?" The blonde asked softly, shaking her head in confusion.

"For offloading onto you like that." Sara explained, a light blush creeping up her cheeks. Catherine's expression softened at her obvious nerves.

"Sara, it's okay." She assured her. "I'm glad you told me. In fact, I have something for you."

Her curiosity peaked, Sara approached the desk and accepted the papers being offered to her.

"What is this?" She asked.

"Since your mother is a dependant, you can claim a tax break. You'll need to submit that form to the IRS. I've already included your proof of employment – it's at the back." She explained. "The pamphlet is for a charity who supports members of law enforcement with personal matters, including people who have caring responsibilities at home. They might be able to offer some legal advice regarding other funding."

While she was talking, Sara had slowly sunk into the chair in front of her, her eyes glued to the papers in her hand. When she finally lifted her head, Catherine couldn't quite decipher the look on her face.

"Thank you." She said earnestly. "That ... that means a lot."

"That's why I'm here." Catherine pointed out with a smile.

When Sara didn't make any effort to move, Cath took the opportunity to scrutinise her. She appeared genuinely taken-aback by the gesture, as if she hadn't expected Catherine to act on her disclosure at all.

Then again, she probably hadn't. After all, would Grissom have even considered seeking out further information to help her?

Catherine sat forward, folding her hands on the desk.

"Sara ... did you ever work with Sandy?"

The question, completely left-field, appeared to startle the brunette out of her thoughts.

"No."

"I did." The ghost of a smile graced Catherine's face for just a second, and then it was gone. "She was a good CSI. A good person."

She paused, taking a steadying breath. She could feel Sara watching her carefully and forced herself to meet her colleague's eye.

"Her father was suffering from dementia and she was trying to look after him on her own because she didn't want to put him into a home. Her son had been kicked out of school after the death of her husband. She was having money problems. She started taking sleeping pills. Eventually she snapped; she couldn't take it anymore. Now, her father's gone into state care, her son's in the foster system – all because she tried to manage on her own. If she'd just talked to someone, told her supervisor, he could have helped her. They could have eased her workload, provided support ... and she might still be alive." She tailed off, chewing on her lower lip for a moment. "How many times have you wanted to tell Grissom something, but you couldn't find him? Or he's been too busy to talk, so you say those standard words: it can wait."

Sara smiled tightly, confirming her suspicions.

"See, you know what I mean." She laughed softly. "That's what this new welfare programme is about. Forget 'Regular Welfare Reviews', forget these weekly five-minute update meetings. The point of this scheme is to make sure you guys have that opportunity to talk to someone so that things don't get put off forever and if there is something that needs addressing, it actually gets addressed. It doesn't matter how trivial it is, if it's bothering you then tell us, because we _can_ help." She pointed to the papers clutched in Sara's hand to prove her point.

Sara looked down at them, then back up at Catherine.

"What if I told you something and if it's not something you can help with?" She asked uncertainly. "What would you do then?"

Catherine attempted to hide her surprise at the fact that Sara had actually voluntarily extended the conversation.

"It depends what you tell me and what _you_ want to happen." She answered honestly. "If you just want to talk, that's fine. We can just talk. If it's something more serious, then we'll work through it and find a solution together, or I'll refer you on to people who can help. The only time I'll have to inform other people myself is if I'm worried that you're at some risk of harm. Okay?"

"Yeah." Sara nodded, licking her lips. "So, when are these meetings going to take place?"

"The 'RWR's will take place once a month – when I get round to scheduling them I'll send you and Nick email invitations so you can add them straight into your calendar. The weekly catch-ups, I thought I could do one of you on a Monday at the start of shift and the other on a Tuesday. Any preference?"

Sara smiled and shook her head. There shifts were so uncertain, she suspected that it wouldn't matter either way, as they'd probably get changed on a regular basis anyway.

Catherine chewed on her lip for a moment, debating whether to push her luck with Sara's current amenable attitude. In the end, she decided to go for it.

"Hey, the meetings are the official opportunity for us to talk, but you know that you can always come to me if there's anything bothering you." She assured her young subordinate. "You've got my number; you always know where to reach me."

Sara nodded in understanding.

"I'm not Grissom; I won't shy away from personal problems." Cath continued sincerely. "I want to help."

Sara nodded again, even offering a small smile this time. When she didn't immediately make to leave, Catherine sent her an optimistic look.

"Was there something you did want to tell me?" She asked.

"No, I'm fine." Sara pushed herself out of the chair and held up the paperwork. "Thank you, for this. It'll really help."

Catherine watched her go, a mix of feelings stirring. She had been worried about how Sara would take to this new arrangement. She knew how close she was to Grissom and also how cagey she could be when pushed for personal information. That combination did not bode well for Catherine as her acting supervisor.

On top of that, after that morning's meeting, she had had more than one concerning thought about what was going on in her young friend's life.

But, perhaps Catherine had underestimated her. After all, she had come here of her own volition and instigated a conversation about her personal life. She had accepted Catherine's help without resistance and even insinuated that she wouldn't be averse to voicing her problems in the future.

Perhaps this whole supervisor lark wouldn't be as difficult as she first thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Nick had just rolled his eyes for the fourth time since she had started this meeting – not that she was counting – and her patience was begin to wear thin at his vague answers.

"Nicky, this isn't supposed to be an interrogation." She pointed out exasperatedly. "I just want to know that things are okay at home."

"Things are fine." He shrugged defensively.

"That's all you're going to give me?" She asked with a tired smile, causing him to laugh.

"There's nothing more to give. I'm fine, work's fine, home's fine." He listed cheerfully. "Can I go now?"

She exhaled loudly, waving a hand to dismiss him.

Nodding gratefully, he scarpered from the office as fast as he could, leaving the door to swing open in his wake.

So far, not so good.

Perhaps she would have better luck with her second subordinate.

At least she already had a starting point planned for Sara...

x X x

The brunette fidgeted nervously, clearly not looking forward to this.

"Relax, I don't bite." Catherine teased, sitting forward in her chair. Sara smiled tightly, seemingly disbelieving of the reassurance.

Settling herself with her notepad in front of her, she fixed Sara with her full attention. However, the astute young CSI had clocked the pad and raised a suspicious eyebrow at her.

"I thought this didn't go in our notes." She queried.

"It doesn't." Cath tapped it lightly with her pen. "This is just for me."

Sara nodded cautiously, still not quite trusting her.

"So, what's going on?" The supervisor began breezily. Sara blinked, unexpectedly flustered by the simple question.

"Everything's fine." She shrugged awkwardly, shifting in her seat. Catherine resisted the urge to sigh. After her failed welfare session with Nick, she had had about enough of 'fine' as she could take.

"How are things with your mom?" She asked instead.

It had dawned on her after Sara's timid admission that she hadn't actually established _why_ Sara's mother was in care. While possible, it was unlikely that she was suffering from dementia or other age-related health issues. After all, Sara was younger than Catherine, whose own mother still went dancing twice a week.

Of course, she couldn't come right out and ask – that would be unprofessional. But, that didn't mean she couldn't tease the information out of Sara by other means.

However, Sara appeared affronted by the question and straightened up in her seat.

"Fine, same as always." She answered cagily.

Catherine watched how Sara's expression changed and recalled the same look crossing her face when they had discussed the matter previously. She had assumed at the time that it was because they were discussing money, which was uncomfortable at the best of times, but now she began to wonder whether something deeper was at play.

Deciding to see how far she could push the issue, Catherine considered her next question carefully.

"She's in California?" She clarified, jotting the fact down when Sara nodded. "You must not get to see her very often?"

This time, Sara's gaze dropped into her lap and Catherine felt a pang of guilt for, she assumed, making her feel bad about that.

"No, I ... I don't."

"You know, you've got more than enough leave stored up. You could take some time off, go and visit her?" She suggested lightly.

"No, I ... I don't think so."

"I bet she misses you." Cath pressed with a gentle smile. However, when Sara looked up and met her gaze, her expression was stony and it became apparent that Catherine had reached her limit.

"She's fine. I get updates from the care home whenever anything happens." Sara explained in an uncharacteristically emotionless tone.

It was clear that she was holding something back, but the last thing Catherine wanted to do was lose the tenuous connection they had established a few days ago, so she swiftly abandoned the thread of conversation and moved on.

"What about a vacation somewhere else?" She suggested instead.

"I took some time off recently." Sara pointed out with a frown.

"Yes, but did you go anywhere?" Catherine challenged playfully. "I meant a proper vacation, away from Vegas. Somewhere by the ocean, maybe? You must miss that?"

This time, the look that crossed Sara's face was softer, fonder.

"Yeah, I do." She agreed, a touch of sadness creeping into her voice. "But now's not really a great time. Maybe in a couple of months."

Catherine wholeheartedly believed that she was dodging the question and had no intention of booking anything, but she could sense the unease washing off Sara and again dropped the line of questioning.

"Okay, so what else is new?"

"Nothing." Sara shifted, her gaze flitting distractedly around the small office. "I closed the Andrews case."

Catherine looked up sharply, a scowl on her face.

"No work." She stated sternly. Unfazed, Sara merely nodded in acceptance of this rule.

"Oh. Then nothing."

x X x

"So," Grissom asked in as blasé a manner as he could muster. "How are the welfare meetings going with your new team?"

Catherine flicked her eyes up from the microscope, narrowing them at him in suspicion.

"We're one week in." She deadpanned. "How do you think it's going?"

"Well, have they told you anything?" He pressed. This time, she straightened up and rested her hands on the bench.

"You know that I couldn't tell you that even if they had."

His lips twitched into a smile at her phrasing of the response.

"So, they haven't." He guessed, a satisfied little smirk fighting its way onto his face. She rolled her eyes in frustration, resuming her work.

"This isn't a game, you know." She drawled. "You don't have to enjoy it so much."

"I'm not enjoying it." He countered, his expression faltering. "I had to spend half an hour this evening listening to Greg lament his love life woes."

Despite her best efforts, Catherine couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at the image of Grissom desperately trying to offer advice to the lovesick young CSI-in-training.

"Hey, could be worse." She offered jovially, without a hint of sympathy. "You haven't sat down with Hodges yet."


	6. Chapter 6

Following her somewhat failed welfare meetings with Sara and Nick, Catherine returned to work the following night frustrated, but intent on remedying the situation.

However, her plans were rapidly put on hold.

Upon arriving at the lab, before she even made it to the locker room, she found herself ambushed into Grissom's office by the rather frazzled entomologist.

"All hands on deck tonight." He declared without preamble.

"Hot case?" She enquired curiously, slipping her jacket off.

"You know that photographer we arrested last night for sexual assault?" He replied, busy rummaging through his paperwork as he spoke. "Archie started going through his computer and found a large collection of child pornography."

"How large?" Catherine asked, although she was not quite sure that she wanted to hear the answer.

"Too large." Came Grissom's unhelpful response. "Well into the thousands. We believe he's been distributing the images to others on peer-to-peer sharing sites. What we need to find out is where the images have come from – whether they're ones he's taken himself as a photographer or downloaded from elsewhere. We need to try and identify the children and also any commonalities between the images."

"That's going to take hours." Catherine pointed out with a sigh.

"Hence the need for all hands on deck." Gil scowled, as if that should have been obvious. Having found the file he was looking for, he straightened up.

"Ecklie wants a meeting with me to discuss a press release – he wants to nip any rumours in the bud before they start. Nick can do the interview with Brass and Sara can ..."

"No." To his surprise, she cut him off abruptly. "Let Warrick do the interview."

"What?" Gil blinked, startled by her forthrightness.

"Nick ... he'll lose his cool. Warrick will be better in the interview."

"Alright." He answered warily at her cryptic response. "I'll have Sara go through the videos and images on his computer to see if she can find any common details to link them – unless you have any objections to that?"

Catherine pursed her lips and shook her head, biting back a smile at the sarcastic edge to his voice.

"Okay, good. Then Nick can go with you to his house. We'll need any camera equipment he owns and photos of each room, in case Sara manages to identify any locations from the images."

She nodded idly, her mind already wandering to the night ahead.

She knew how Nick handled sexual offences against children – and she knew why. She simply couldn't let him loose on the suspect and she certainly couldn't let make him spend a night looking at images of children being abused.

If he was with her, she could keep an eye on him at least, even if he wouldn't talk to her.

x X x

To her relief, the scene had been relatively easy to process. Their suspect was evidently something of a neat freak, which made it a breeze to locate all of his camera equipment, as it was all stored in one place in a Grissom-esque order.

However, documenting and packaging it all was another matter and it was several hours before they made it back to the lab.

With Nick checking the evidence in and Grissom still preoccupied in his meeting with Ecklie, Catherine decided to see how the case was progressing from the forensic side of things.

"Hey," She greeted, swinging into the computer lab, where Sara was still seated at the same desk she had been working at when Catherine left the building all those hours ago. The brunette didn't tear her gaze from the screen as she mumbled a half-hearted greeting, her attention well and truly captured by her work.

Catherine approached the bench, resting one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table so she could lean down to see the screen.

"Any luck?" She asked optimistically, noting how Sara had isolated a particular part of the background from one image and was trying to enhance it to gather more detail.

As the young CSI explained what she was doing and what progress she had made, Catherine became acutely aware of something and sent her colleague a sideways glance.

"Are you alright?" She asked, concern lacing her voice.

"I'm fine." Sara frowned, not even glancing away from the screen. "Why?"

"Are you sure?" Cath pressed, ignoring her question.

"Of course I'm sure."

"Sara, I can hear your heartbeat." Catherine pointed out bluntly.

She reached out to brush Sara's hair away from her shoulder in an attempt to feel her pulse, but Sara leant away from her touch.

"Hey." She scolded, causing the brunette reluctantly to sit still and allow Cath to press two fingertips firmly against her neck. "Your heart's pounding."

As she spoke, her eye caught sight of the coffee cup sitting inoffensively on the bench.

"How many of those have you had tonight?"

"I stopped counting at six." Sara stated calmly, shrugging her off. "I'm fine."

"You need to lay off the caffeine. You'll be getting palpitations." Cath straightened up and placed her hands on her hips. "Why don't you take a break, go get a glass of water or something. This can wait a while."

"Really, I'm fine."

"That wasn't a question." Catherine stated, grabbing the arms of the chair and swivelling it around so that Sara had no choice but to lose her connection with the computer. "Take a break. And stay away from the coffee pot!"

x X x

Grissom almost sailed straight past the break room, when something caught his eye and he backtracked.

"Sara?" He questioned.

She hummed in answer, continuing to peruse her magazine.

"What are you doing?" He asked incredulously. She finally looked up from her spot leaning against the counter.

"I'm on a break." She frowned softly.

"A break?" He echoed. "Have you finished reviewing the tapes?"

"No, I..."

"Well get back to it." He cut her off, taking the opportunity to get himself a cup of coffee. "We need the results from those images as soon as possible before we can progress the case."

With a tired sigh, she tossed the magazine aside and headed back towards the corridor.

As she was leaving the room, she almost bumped into Catherine, who grabbed her arms to steady herself.

"Oh," Cath blinked, surprised by the encounter. "Where are you going?"

"Back to the tapes." Sara answered.

Catherine continued to hold one of her arms, releasing the other to check her watch.

"No you're not." She countered, spinning Sara around and nudging her in the direction of the couch. "Sit, eat something."

"Catherine." Grissom scowled, drawing her attention for the first time. "What are you doing?"

"What?" She blinked, ushering the quietly protesting brunette further into the room.

"We need the evidence from those tapes. Ecklie wants to put out a press statement in the morning."

"I know that," she rolled her eyes. "But the team still need to take breaks. You know that they lose their edge after a while."

"We don't have time for breaks." He argued. "You can't just pull a member of staff off their work without consulting me."

She scoffed.

"Actually I can." She flicked her hair indignantly over her shoulder. "Sara and Nick are no longer _your_ staff and if I send them on a break, you have no business countering my instructions."

As they were bickering, Sara silently slipped out of the room and ducked into the layout room next door, where she sank onto a stool. She could still see them, but their voices were hushed in here. Releasing a sigh, she clawed a hand through her hair.

"Hey," Nick greeted, ambling into the room with a frown. "What are they arguing about?"

"Me." She moped sadly. "Catherine told me to take a break and Grissom told me to go back to work and now ..."

She waved a hand in the vague direction of their warring supervisors, as if it explained everything.

"Ah, I get it. This is a battle of seniority." He realised, dropping down beside her and placing a lazy hand on her leg. "You know, I hate this – if Ecklie had wanted to get at Grissom, I'm sure he could have found a way of doing it without putting us in the middle."

She turned to him curiously.

"Do you think that's all this is? Ecklie trying to put one over on Grissom?"

"Sure, what else could it be?" He scowled. "He's wanted Grissom out for years and now he's finally in a position to make it happen. And he's using us, and Catherine, to do it."

"You're not suggesting that Catherine's helping him though?"

"Sure, why not?" He shrugged. "I mean, not that I can blame her for wanting to take the opportunity for a promotion, but at Grissom's expense?"

Sara's gaze wandered out of the room, to where Catherine now stood with her back to them, her hands resting on the bench and her head bowed. Grissom had stalked off, though it was not clear who, if anyone, had won the argument.

"Maybe she's just as caught up in this as we are." Sara suggested quietly. "She's always backed up Grissom before, even when he's in the wrong. I don't think she asked to be put in this position."

"Maybe not." Nick conceded, somewhat unconvinced. "Either way, I don't like being used as a pawn in someone else's game."

"No." She acknowledged forlornly; although she wasn't entirely talking about work anymore. "Neither do I."


	7. Chapter 7

**I know that technically Mia was the DNA tech in season 5, but I prefer Wendy :)**

**x X x**

A week later, Catherine's stand-off with Grissom was still in full swing, but she had bigger fish to fry than his bad mood; and she wasn't about to let his silent treatment interfere with her newfound role as supervisor.

Not that her young grasshoppers were making it easy either...

x X x

It had been a long night and an even longer morning. It was nearly lunchtime by the time she finally finished up for the day. If she left now, she could have a couple of hours sleep before Lindsey got home from school.

However, as she wandered past the row of labs en route to the locker room, something caught her eye which made her back track.

Stepping into the dimly lit room, she wandered over to the desk and placed her hands on her hips.

"Oh Lord."

While she was stood contemplating the scene before her, Warrick ambled in chuckling to himself. He rested his hands on the back of Sara's chair, looking down at the sleeping brunette with a fond smile.

"Aw man. Didn't she pull a double today?" He asked when he noticed the disgruntled frown on Catherine's face.

"Yes." Cath snapped exasperatedly. "I told her to go home..." she checked her watch, "four hours ago!"

The dark-skinned CSI chuckled again, straightening up.

"Go easy on her." He teased playfully, backing out of the room. She grunted in response, continuing to scowl at her slumbering subordinate.

"Alright lady," she muttered to herself. "You had your chance."

She carefully extracted a folder from beneath Sara's folded arms, cautious not to wake the girl. Then, with a ceremonious flourish, she slammed the folder down on the desk inches from Sara's face.

The brunette yelped, startling herself awake.

As she attempted to gather her bearings, Catherine leant down into her line of sight, placing her hands on Sara's legs for balance – and to keep her in place.

"What part of 'go home' wasn't clear to you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sara mumbled something incoherent, still looking around herself in bemusement.

"I ... I was working, I'm ..."

"No, you were sleeping." Cath countered. "And now you're going to do as I told you to and _go home_."

"But..."

"No buts." She cut her off, straightening up. "You pulled a double, you shouldn't still be here."

"You're still here." Sara shot back, finally managing to gather some semblance of alertness.

"Not for much longer." Catherine retorted. "I was on my way out when I spotted you in here cat-napping. Now, do I need to escort you to the parking lot, or can I trust you to find your own way there?"

Sara smiled weakly, her eyes finally starting to brighten up.

"I can manage." She assured her. "Just let me tidy this up."

Catherine cast a glance at the mass of paperwork which had been masquerading as Sara's pillow.

"Okay." She agreed. "You put it away and then you go straight home. Agreed?"

"I promise." Sara nodded affirmatively.

Catherine's lips twitched into a smile and she stepped back. Reaching a hand up, she teasingly tapped Sara's cheek.

"Good girl."

It wasn't that she didn't trust Sara, of course, but after gathering her things from the locker room, Catherine made a point of swinging by the lab to check that the stubborn young CSI had done as she was told.

The room was in darkness, the desk cleared of paperwork. Empty.

With a satisfied nod, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder and strode down the corridor, barely even noticing the cold look she received from Grissom on the way.

x X x

After an all-too brief afternoon spent with her sulky teenage daughter, Catherine soon found herself sloping back through the halls towards her little cupboard-office.

She had barely even sat down when there was a soft tap at her door.

"Hmm?" She answered, not looking up from the memos littering her desk.

"Catherine?" Wendy greeted tentatively. "We need your help."

Cath finally looked up, surprised to find the DNA lab tech hovering anxiously in the doorway, with Mandy lurking behind her.

"What's up?" She asked when neither elaborated on the request. The two looked nervously at each other, before Wendy eventually shuffled into the room.

"Have you seen Sara tonight?" She asked.

"No, it's her night off." Catherine frowned. "She won't be here tonight."

"Actually, she's already here." Mandy countered. "And she's not looking so good."

Catherine was already striding past them into the hall before they finished talking.

"Where is she?" She demanded.

"One of the labs upstairs," Mandy answered, dashing ahead of her to lead the way.

They came to a stop outside the darkened lab, letting Catherine go in first. Sara was slumped over the desk, head resting on her folded arms in very much the same position she had been the last time Catherine found her.

Leaning over, Cath brushed her hair aside and felt for her pulse. Once again, she was asleep.

"How long has she been here?" The blonde asked the techs, who remained lingering by the door.

"I've been in since six and I haven't seen her arrive." Wendy said. Since DNA was the first lab you came to, that was not fantastic news.

"Archie's been in all day – he said he saw her heading up here at lunchtime." Mandy chipped in.

Catherine exhaled. Evidently, when Sara had vacated the office downstairs, it wasn't to go home after all. She had simply relocated.

"So, she's been here all day?" She sighed, shaking her head.

"We thought we ought to let you know." Wendy offered uncomfortably. She truly felt bad for Sara – she liked the brunette, and she admired her dedication to her work. But, she knew what burn-out could do to a person and she'd hate to see that happen to Sara.

"Thank you." Catherine said gratefully. "Do me a favour, don't mention this to anyone else – especially Grissom. Just tell him that I've got held up on a case and I'll catch up with him later."

They nodded, understanding the need for discretion. They were well aware of the recent shake-up on the grave shift and it was hard to miss the growing tension between the two supervisors.

With a final offer of support, they slipped out to let her deal with Sara in peace.

Catherine considered pulling the same trick she had earlier in the day to wake her up, but somehow it didn't seem right this time.

The techs were right, Sara didn't look so good. She was paler than she had been earlier, and probably hadn't eaten all day.

Still, that didn't mean that she was going to get an easy ride.

Checking that the hall was deserted, Catherine dashed down to the locker room, before returned to the lab to find that Sara hadn't moved an inch in her brief absence. Dragging a chair over, she parked herself in front of her colleague ... and she waited.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long.

When Sara's eyes finally fluttered open, blinking a few times until her vision cleared, she found herself staring at Catherine's eerily calm expression.

"Good evening, Miss Sidle." She greeted coolly. "It's about time you woke up. I was just getting ready to taser you."

Sara sat up stiffly, glancing around the room.

"What are you doing here?" She asked hoarsely. Catherine's lips twitched into a smile.

"No sweetheart, the question is what are _you_ doing here?"

Sara managed to look bashful, despite the grin trying to creep onto her face.

"I was so close."

Catherine rolled her eyes, sitting forward.

"You were face-down on the desk. What exactly were you close to?"

Sara didn't answer, not that there was any legitimate response she could offer which would help her argument at this point. She _had_ been close to a breakthrough in her case, but she had been too tired to see exactly what she was looking for.

Accepting her silence as defeat, Catherine handed her the jacket and bag she had retrieved from Sara's locker earlier and stood up.

"Come on, I'm taking you home."

"Your shift has started." Sara pointed out, checking her watch.

"I don't care." Catherine countered, taking her arm and dragging her to her feet. "Since you clearly can't manage to get yourself home, I'm going to do it for you. And I do not want to see you in this building again for at least 24 hours. Clear?"

Sara pouted, offering a sullen nod.

"Good." Catherine asserted, keeping hold of her arm and escorting her towards the door. "And in case you were planning anything, I've taken custody of your car keys."

Sara suddenly dug her heels in, bringing them both to a stop.

"My car's here." She realised aloud. "How am I supposed to get to work tomorrow if you drive me home?"

"I'll pick you up." Catherine stated in a tone that suggested she had already decided this. "You're going to start work on time for once, instead of two hours early."

Not waiting for a response, she set off again, assuming that Sara would follow her.

"You can't just steal my keys." The brunette scowled, reluctantly tailing her down the stairs.

"Watch me." Catherine smirked.

As they passed the locker room, with Catherine still leading the way, Sara came to an abrupt halt once more, turning to stare into the room for a moment.

"Hey." She called at Catherine's retreating form. "How did you get in my locker?!"


	8. Chapter 8

Alright, so her last meeting with her subordinates had not gone so well, but this time Catherine had a plan.

After some consideration, it had dawned on her that she was trying to employ one system for them both, when that was never going to work. They were simply too different.

Now, Nick was going to have to be pinned down. She had convened a list of simple questions, to which he could answer yes or no and from there she would be able to assess his current state for herself without him having to give long, wordy answers.

Sleeping well? Eating right? Hitting the gym? Any women in his life?

Sara, on the other hand, needed to be handled more delicately. Direct questions tended to cause her to clam up.

But the main thing that had struck her with Sara in their last meeting was the way that she constantly seemed to be checking around herself, as if the walls were closing in on her. Granted, Catherine's office was small and could feel claustrophobic at times – something she had complained to Grissom about on more than one occasion – but Sara seemed unusually uncomfortable in the little closet-room.

And the solution to that was easy. She would take her out of the office. Outside, where there was less pressure and Sara could breathe. Then, they could just talk. No desk, no notepads. Just friends, talking.

And if that didn't work, she'd take her to a bar.

x X x

Ever the polite guest, Sara rapped gently on the open door before stepping into the office with a bashful smile.

However, before she had a chance to sit down, Catherine had turned her around and walked her back into the hallway.

"Where are we going?" Sara frowned, wriggling out of her grip.

"Outside." Catherine explained bluntly, as if that was enough.

Sara followed her silently, bemusedly through the corridor and reception area. As they exited the building, Cath tipped her head towards the sky for a moment, before taking Sara lightly by the arm and leading her down the stone steps into the parking lot.

The brunette still wasn't sure quite what was going on, but she didn't argue as they mooched around the side of the building to where it was quiet.

"Why are we out here?" She asked at last, glancing nervously around, as if she was expecting something to lurch out of the shadows at her.

"To talk." Catherine shrugged at her with a small smile. "I got the feeling last time that you were uncomfortable in the office; I thought out here might be a bit easier."

"Oh." Sara frowned softly, casting her gaze across the deserted patch of land leading away from the modern laboratory building. On a clear night, you could get a pretty good view of the strip from here.

"So," Catherine drawled when it became evident that she was still going to have to do most of the work. "How are things?"

"Fine." Sara answered, ambling towards the edge of the path and peering over the edge, where the sandy ground dropped towards the road below. The ledge was weathered from years of desert storms, causing it to curve inwards.

Catherine followed her, studying her demeanour carefully. She definitely appeared more relaxed out here, even if she wasn't saying much more.

"Any news from your mother?"

"No. Which means everything's fine."

Cath frowned at the clipped response. Sara had insinuated last time that she only had any dealings with her mother when the care home contacted her and that appeared to corroborate the idea.

"You don't see her, do you?" She probed.

"No." Sara answered bluntly, keeping her gaze fixed ahead on the horizon. The sun had gone down a couple of hours ago, but in Vegas the sky never got dark.

Catherine pursed her lips, taking a cautious step closer, without wanting to crowd her.

"But you still pay her care home fees?"

Sara exhaled, although Cath couldn't tell whether it was through exasperation or resignation at this point.

"Yeah, I do."

While the supervisor was analysing the abrupt response, trying to find a way to salvage a meaningful conversation from it, she heard a soft sniffle and caught sight of Sara surreptitiously attempting to wipe away a tear.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked, not even hesitating to encroach on Sara's person space this time.

"I'm fine." The younger woman said, immediately moving out of her reach and keeping her head bowed.

"No you're not, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Well, it's obviously not nothing." Catherine countered gently. "So, why don't you tell me and maybe I can help?"

Instead of answering, Sara wandered over to a low wall and sat down. Catherine followed suit, sinking down beside her onto the cold stone.

"You do remember why we're doing this, right?" She asked. "It's so that we can help you with whatever's bothering you."

"I know." Sara mumbled, dragging the toe of her boot through the dust, causing a tiny little sandstorm to rise and dance across the ground.

"So?"

"So, nothing's _bothering_ me, per se." She shrugged awkwardly.

"Well, there's obviously something that you want to say to me." Cath noted, nudging her.

"You'll think I'm pathetic."

"No I won't." Catherine breathed, taken aback by the insinuation. "Tell me."

Sara swallowed hard around the lump in her throat, struggling to put her thoughts into coherent sentences.

"It's just ... what you did, before ... about my mother..."

She reached up to swipe at another tear attempting to escape, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment at being seen in such a vulnerable state. Catherine tentatively placed a hand on her back and felt the girl's body twitch beneath her fingertips.

Taking a deep breath, Sara tried again.

"I've just never had someone go to bat for me like that before. You didn't have to do it."

Catherine smiled at the sheepish confession and slid her hand further round Sara's back to rest on her hip.

"That's my job, honey."

"Yeah, well, I'm not used to accepting help from people." Sara continued nervously, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "This is all foreign to me."

"It's okay." Catherine shrugged, attempting to keep her voice light. "You don't have to force it. Just know that I'm here, if you do need anything."

Sara nodded, sinking her gaze to the ground. Catherine scrutinised her for a moment.

"That's not all that's on your mind, is it?" She asked eventually.

Sara looked up and sighed, causing her breath to mist in the cooling air.

"It's nothing really." She stated. "It's just, what you were talking about before got me thinking and ... I guess I've been missing home more lately."

"Home?" Catherine enquired. "You mean, San Francisco?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." She hummed with an undeniable touch of sadness to her voice. "After all these years, you still don't consider Vegas to be 'home'?"

Sara shrugged awkwardly.

"I don't know, I guess I just felt more comfortable in San Francisco. It's more my kind of city."

She didn't elaborate, and Catherine didn't ask, but the blonde raised a knowing eyebrow at the cryptic comment. She suspected that she knew why Sara felt more comfortable in a place like San Francisco, but she wasn't about to go down that road now.

"So, why don't you go back?" She suggested. "For a visit, I mean! Don't go quitting on us!"

Sara smiled at her sudden correction.

"I'd like to. I had planned to a while ago, but then we got a big case and Grissom asked me to stay and help out."

"He asked you to cancel a vacation?" Catherine scowled. "I didn't know that, when was this?"

"It was a one-off, it's not important." Sara interjected hurriedly, not wanting to cause further strife between the warring supervisors. Despite her assurances, Catherine shook her head bitterly.

"He can't do that, you know." She insisted sullenly. "You're entitled to your vacations, irrespective of our workload."

When Sara elected not to answer, Catherine dismissed her concerns about Grissom for a moment and returned her attention to the subject at hand.

"Why don't you take a few days now?" She suggested. "You've got more than enough time accrued and it might do you some good to get away from work for a while."

Sara tipped her head back towards the sky and Catherine braced herself for the excuses she thought were about to come. To her surprise, when Sara spoke, it wasn't to decline the offer.

"I would quite like to see a surfboard again."

It was said softly, but with that same touch of fondness that she had heard whenever Sara mentioned the city by the bay.

"You surf?" She asked, mildly impressed.

"I used to." Sara hummed sadly. "It's been a long time since I had the chance."

"So..." Catherine pressed. "You've got the chance now..."

Sara shot her a sideways glance and Catherine couldn't help but notice the smile attempting to tug at her lips.

"I'd have to ask Grissom." She pointed out.

"No, you don't." Cath countered. "He's not in charge of your leave requests anymore. That's under my purview now."

This time, the smile she received actually reached Sara's warm hazel eyes.

"Alright." The brunette drawled at last. "I'll get the request in to you once I've checked the flights."

Catherine stood up.

"Consider it approved." She grinned, offering out a hand to Sara to tug her up to her feet too. "And I want to see a tan when you get back."

x X x

He jumped, looking from the piece of paper that had just been slammed down in front of him to the person responsible for it.

"Catherine." He greeted coolly, raising an eyebrow at her pissed-off scowl.

"Sara's leave request." She stated without preamble, pushing the paper closer to him.

He cleared his throat, nudging the document back towards her without so much as sparing it a glance.

"That's not my responsibility anymore." He pointed out as sweetly as he could.

"I know. I've already approved it." She straightened up. "I'm just telling you as a courtesy, since you're still responsible for her assignments."

She turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway. When she turned around, he was surveying the document and glanced up at her expectantly.

"By the way, what in the hell gives you the right to ask a staff member to cancel their vacation because of a case?"

He opened his mouth and was attempting to find some words with which to answer the question, when Catherine flicked her wrist at him dismissively and stalked out of the room before he could say anything.

Evidently, he realised too late, that was a rhetorical question.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sort of a filler chapter, but hopefully you like**

**x X x**

True to her word, when Sara returned from her break, she did have a tan.

"Hey," Catherine greeted cheerfully upon entering the locker room and setting her sights on the sole occupant. "Welcome back!"

Sara turned and smiled; a wide genuine smile that Catherine couldn't recall seeing for a long time.

"Hi."

Catherine dragged her eyes slowly over the brunette, giving her a long once-over.

"You look good." She nodded approvingly. "Enjoy the bay?"

"Yeah, it was great." Sara grinned, oblivious to Catherine's intense scrutiny of her.

"You managed to get some surfing in?" Cath continued, slipping her jacket off and hanging it up in her locker.

Sara smiled coyly.

"Yeah, that's ... that's pretty much all I did, to be honest."

Catherine chuckled at her sheepish answer.

"Well, good." She nodded again. "You needed to take some time for yourself."

Sara hummed in agreement, continuing to rummage in her locker. Catherine stopped what she was doing for a moment and turned to face her again.

She couldn't quite put it into words, but Sara seemed ... lighter, somehow. Like a weight had been lifted.

Whatever it was it, it suited her.

x X x

"Alright Nicky," Catherine exhaled, turning to her list of pre-prepared questions. "How's things?"

"Good." He nodded, sitting back in the chair and folding his hands across his stomach.

"Eating right?"

"Yeah." He answered, a smile creeping onto his lips. This was starting to sound like every phone call he had with his mom. "Well, aside from the odd burrito here and there."

"Sleep?"

"Good." He nodded again.

"Hitting the gym?"

In response, he made a muscle and grinned.

"Always."

She returned his cheeky smile and winked playfully at him.

"Good. Women?"

He laughed brightly, throwing his head back.

"I am not answering that!"

"Why not?" She chuckled at the pink tint creeping up his cheeks.

"Because it's private."

"That's never stopped you before." She pointed out teasingly.

"You're mixing me up with Warrick." He joked. "We done here?"

That easy smile returned to her face and she tapped her pen pointedly on the desk.

"Not until I get my answer, cowboy."

x X x

"So, vacation went well?" She began, watching Sara mooch towards the edge of the path and peer down at the road below, just like she had done last time.

"Yeah." The brunette smiled. "You were right, I'm glad I went."

"Good." Catherine pursed her lips, joining her on the sandy ledge.

She was still planning her next question when, to her surprise, Sara continued.

"You know, it reminded me of something as well." A soft frown settled on her face. "I realise now one of the things that I missed so much about my life in San Francisco."

"Yeah?"

"Every morning, before work, I used to take my dog for a walk on the beach. It would be really early and there would be no one else around. Just me, him and the sea."

Catherine watched her closely from beneath her lashes, studying her face. Her voice had turned soft, almost sad at the memory.

"I didn't know you had a dog." She confessed.

"Ali." Sara nodded. "He was a boxer. He died a couple of months before Grissom called and asked me to come to Vegas to investigate Holly's shooting."

Catherine felt her stomach knot in the way it always did when someone mentioned Holly's name, but she forced the feeling back down and focussed on the conversation at hand.

"So, you're thinking of getting another one?" She guessed where Sara was going with this reminiscence.

"Yeah." Sara's lips twitched into a smile. "I mean, not just yet – I need to find a bigger place first, ideally somewhere with a yard."

"You're moving?" Catherine raised her eyebrows. Evidently, Sara had done a lot of thinking on her little vacation.

"Yeah, well now that I've sorted my mother's care home payments out – thanks to you – I can afford somewhere a little bigger. It still won't be much, but it would be nice to at least have walls between my kitchen and bedroom." She joked.

Catherine hummed in agreement. Knowing where Sara lived, she couldn't deny the relief she felt at the idea of her moving. Of course, Sara carried a weapon, but she'd still rest easier once her young colleague was out of that neighbourhood.

She still remembered the horror she felt at finding out where Sara was living when she first came to Vegas. She had even tried to deter her new colleague from renting there, but to no avail. Of course, she hadn't known about Sara's financial situation at the time.

"Well, good, I'm glad." She nodded with a genuine smile, placing a hand briefly on Sara's arm. "Where are you looking at moving to?"

"Maybe somewhere around Lake Mead." A cool breeze ran between them and Sara shivered at the chill it sent up her spine. Feeling exposed, she turned and wandered back to perch on the same wall that they had sat on last time, with Catherine following suit. "It's not the same as the beach, but its water and sand and I'll take it."

"My mom lives near there, it's nice." Cath agreed. "Nice place to walk a dog, too."

"Yeah, there's a rescue centre nearby." Sara smiled that endearing little half smile again. "It'll be nice to have another heartbeat around the home again."

Catherine reached out again and placed her hand on Sara's leg, leaving it there for longer this time.

"I'm pleased for you, really I am." She said sincerely; and even in the fading light she managed to spot the delicate little blush that settled itself on Sara's face.

x X x

"Catherine!"

Grissom's voice halted her path and she spun around, clutching the leaflets in her hand to her chest protectively as she did so.

"Hey Gil," She greeted.

"Ecklie wants a meeting with us." He explained without preamble, grasping her arm and turning her around.

"Okay." She frowned. "What about?"

"I don't know, but he's waiting for us now. I've been trying to page you."

As they spoke, he had been ushering her down the hall with a hand on her back and she looked up to find herself outside Ecklie's office before she'd even realised where they were heading.

Stepping inside, the director was clearly waiting for them.

"Catherine, Gil, glad you could join me." He said in a clipped tone, tapping his fingers on the desk impatiently.

"Conrad." Catherine smiled unapologetically, sinking into one of the chairs in front of him. "What's up?"

Grissom sat down next to her, visibly more nervous. Of course, he had good reason to be – last time he had been in this office, he had lost two members of his team.

Catherine had placed her leaflets down on the edge of the desk and he picked them up, raising a curious eyebrow at her. Though he didn't offer any comment, he was visibly puzzled as to why she was wandering around with literature on water sports at Lake Mead. She scowled, snatching them back off him indignantly and this time resting them on her lap.

Ecklie watched the wordless exchange with a frown. Having worked with them both for many years, it still never ceased to amaze him how the old friends could say so much without ever opening their mouths.

Choosing to ignore it, he cleared his throat and got right down to business.

"The Sheriff wants an update on how the new welfare policy is working out." He explained. "So far, it's shown some success in Swing – which is to be expected, since they worked with Sandy. Days hasn't been as fast to make progress. So, what have you two got for me?"

The supervisors shared a look and Catherine piped up first.

"It's going pretty well so far." She shrugged. "The guys are still a bit reluctant to open up, but Sara and Greg seem to be taking to the idea."

"Really?" Ecklie sat forwards and folded his hands on the desk. "So, you think that it's been a positive thing for grave?"

"Yeah, I do." She agreed, her fingertips subconsciously caressing the leaflets in her lap.

"What about you, Gil?"

"Well, so far Greg ad Warrick haven't really had much that they've needed support with, but I know you've been working with Sara quite a bit." He answered, instantly shifting the focus back off himself with a smile. Catherine rolled her eyes at his obvious deflection.

"Yeah, she's starting to open up, slowly." She mused. "I think that this is helping her to get some more balance in her life."

"You do?" Ecklie raised an eyebrow. He hadn't really expected that, but then he never really knew what to expect from the frustratingly fiery brunette.

"Yeah, I do."

"Good. That's all I needed to know." He declared, scribbling a few notes down on the pad in front of him. When neither of them moved, he glanced back up and raised an eyebrow at them. "We're done."


	10. Chapter 10

"So, how're you finding Catherine as a supervisor?"

The question, asked after an extended period of working in companionable silence, was intended to sound casual, but Sara still caught the edge to it.

She flicked her eyes up from her fingerprinting, a half-smile working its way onto her lips.

"Fine, I guess." She answered. "Why? How're you finding it?"

Nick shrugged awkwardly.

"Fine." He agreed, although the tone of his voice suggested otherwise. "She's very different to Grissom through."

"I think that was the point."

"Yeah, I guess. She's a lot more strict than I expected, you know, with the case updates and stuff. She really was serious about that. And..."

"And?" She pressed when he tailed off. Nick cast a glance over his shoulder to make sure that no one could hear him.

"She's so nosey." He whispered conspiratorially, causing a bright laugh to bubble out of Sara.

"Well, yeah." She agreed, chuckling to herself. "But that's who she is. And that is kind of the point of this new welfare thing."

"She wants to know everything!" Nick frowned. "It's intrusive."

"No, it's ... caring." She settled on after a moment of deliberation. "She just wants to know that everything's alright."

"Yeah, but she doesn't accept it when I say that everything is alright." He scowled petulantly.

"Maybe she knows that you're lying." Sara shot him a cheeky smile, which he couldn't help but laugh at.

"She just doesn't get me." He shook his head. "I'm just not the kind of guy who can sit in a room and talk about my feelings from one minute to the next."

"Yeah, well, neither am I." Sara stood up at last, brushing dust off her jeans. "But you know, if you give her a chance, she's actually pretty good at dealing with things."

"What things?" He asked, his curiosity suddenly peaked.

"Just ... things." She shrugged awkwardly. "Stuff that's going on in your life that you need support with."

"Yeah?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "What kind of stuff has she been helping you with?"

"Never you mind." She teased playfully, going back to her work. "Just give her a chance. It's not like she asked for this job, but she's doing her best with it. And in the long run it might make Grissom a better supervisor."

"That's just it; Grissom's a perfectly good supervisor now."

Sara didn't respond to the comment, but her expression suggested that she didn't entirely agree with it.

"Anyway, I thought you were supposed to be Mr Loyal." She said instead, although it came out more snarky than she intended.

He stopped what he was doing, his head whipping up to offer her a mildly offended look.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She sighed, fixing him with her full attention for a moment.

"Ecklie is watching Grissom and Catherine like a hawk right now, and what we all do reflects on them as supervisors. You should be backing Catherine up, not making her job harder." She pointed out. "I mean, unless you want Warrick's team to win this little game? Because we know how loyal _he_ is."

She was goading him and she knew it, but it was just too fun to watch the indignant expression cross his face.

"Hey, now hold on a second." He placed his hands on his hips defensively. "I'm just as loyal as Warrick."

"Oh yeah?" She teased. "Then prove it. Play nice with Catherine – you'll be doing her _and_ Grissom a favour."

He cocked his head to the side, thinking this through. He knew that she was just winding him up about competing with 'Warrick's team', but he had to admit that he hadn't looked at it that way before. He supposed Sara was right, Catherine did deserve his loyalty, and if it helped Grissom get his team back sooner, all the better.

Sara smirked, satisfied that she had bugged him enough for the time being, and wandered off to resuming fingerprinting elsewhere while he continued to contemplate her words.

x X x

"So, how're things going with your new job?"

"New job?" Catherine looked up, startled by the unexpected question.

"Playing supervisor to Nick and Sara." Warrick elaborated with a coy smile. She laughed, shaking her head.

"It's ... testing." She hummed. "But I'm making it work."

"Yeah?" He scrutinised her for a second. "Do you think this could become a permanent thing?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess that would be Ecklie's call."

"Do you want that?"

She cocked her hip to the side for a minute, considering the suggestion.

"Yeah, I guess." She decided at last. "I mean, I've always said I don't want to get a promotion because of Grissom's ineptness, but I _can_ do this and a part of me is glad of the opportunity."

"Even if it costs you your friendship with Grissom?"

"Oh, we'll be fine." She waved a dismissive hand. "He's just sulking because he's not allowed full control of his troops anymore. He'll get over it eventually ... but don't tell him I said that. He'll just sulk even more."

Warrick chuckled.

"Well, I'm happy for you." He mused, ambling off to investigate something on the other side of the room. "And I'll be even happier when things settle down around here."

With his back to her, her expression faltered slightly.

"Yeah, me too." She agreed quietly.

x X x

Grissom grunted at the soft knock on his door, but he didn't look up until the sound of someone clearing their voice wrenched him from his concentration.

"Greg?" He queried at the sight of the young man loitering in his doorway.

"Hey," Greg pursed his lips, shuffling further inside. "I was wondering whether you have a minute?"

"Certainly. Did you get the DNA results back yet?"

"No," Greg shifted. "And this isn't work-related."

"Oh." Grissom frowned, slowly taking off his glasses. "Okay."

Greg tentatively sat down in one of the chairs opposite the desk, twisting his hands nervously in front of him.

"So," Gil pressed when he didn't say anything else. "Speak."

"Well, I ... I didn't know whether or not to come to you about this, but I wasn't sure who else to go to, and with this whole welfare thing, you know..."

"Greg." Grissom held up his hands exasperatedly. "Will you get to the point?"

Greg lifted his gaze from his lap, and for the first time Grissom noticed the red-rimmed eyes and the look of quiet distress settled on the young man's face.

"I ... I have a lump."

x X x

Sara stalled outside the locker room, cocking her head to the side for a moment. When she heard it again, she took a step back and peered inside.

The lights were off, but that wasn't enough to disguise the figure sat hunched over on the bench sniffling quietly to himself.

"Greg?" She asked softly, stepping inside. He looked up, startled, and wiped furiously at his eyes.

"Hey," he croaked meekly. Sinking onto the bench beside him, she took his hand and pulled it away from his face, causing a pathetic whimper to escape his lips.

"What's wrong?" She almost pleaded, searching his face. He opened his mouth to answer, but only managed a hiccup.

Making an executive decision, she stood up and retrieved their belongings from their respective lockers without awaiting invitation.

"Come on." She said, holding out a hand to him.

He didn't argue, allowing himself to be led out into the blissfully deserted corridor.

He didn't know where she was taking him, but quite frankly anywhere was better than being stuck inside his own head right now.

x X x

She was so focused on her work that she started at the voice behind her.

"Oh, Gil." She breathed. "What's up?"

He shuffled up to the bench, absently assessing the evidence laid out in front of her for a moment. It was a natural habit, even though he didn't know the first thing about the case she was working on so the multitude of evidence bags meant nothing to him.

"I need your advice." He said cryptically after a painfully long pause.

"Alright." She hummed, having already resumed her work while he was busy deliberating. "With what?"

"Supervising."

Slowly, she put down her pen and fixed him with a curious look.

"You're asking for my help?" She clarified.

"Apparently, you're better at this than me." He conceded, genuinely contrite. "And this is too big for me to get it wrong."


	11. Chapter 11

**Slightly shorter chapter, but needed to move the story along.**

**x X x**

He handed her a roll of tape with a heavy sigh.

"I don't really know what I expected. I mean, he's Grissom, you know."

Sara nodded in agreement, taping up the box.

"But, I guess I just thought with this new welfare thing that he would have something useful to offer."

Greg, perched on another box, kicked out pitifully at the one she was securing. Sara stood up, tucking an escaped stand of hair behind her ear, and fixed him with an affectionate look.

"You know that Grissom cares about you." She assured him. "He's just not good at the emotional stuff."

Greg snorted dismissively at the comment.

"Yeah, no kidding."

x X x

"So, what exactly did you say to him?" Catherine asked, handing him a mug of coffee and sinking down in the chair opposite his desk.

Grissom accepted the drink, nursing it carefully between his hands.

"I told him about the lab's long-term sick leave policy, and I suggested a couple of places that can provide financial support if he needs it. And I suggested he speak to the PEAP counsellor."

Catherine blinked at him.

"He doesn't even know if it's cancerous yet." She pointed out. "Did you try to reassure him, to point out that he's young and healthy and it could be nothing to worry about?"

This time it was Grissom's turn to look surprised.

"No." He admitted weakly. When she rolled her eyes, he winced. "I told you, I'm not good at this."

x X x

"You know that, whatever this is, you're going to have our support. Including Grissom – even if he's bad at saying it." Sara assured him as they slid yet another packaged box to the side of the room with the others. With most of her belongings now stashed away, her little apartment suddenly looked much bigger.

"I know that." Greg agreed, dragging the toe of his boot across the floor. "I'm just scared."

Exhaling deeply, Sara moved over to him and wrapped him into a hug, which he willingly reciprocated.

"Thanks." He mumbled into her hair.

x X x

"What do I say?" He asked, an undeniable tremor to his voice.

She released a heavy sigh as she was dialling.

"You tell him that you're available to talk and whatever support he needs, he will have it."

She punctuated her statement by brandishing the phone at him, nodding encouragingly when he stared warily at it.

x X x

They broke apart and Greg extracted the cell phone from his pocket.

"It's Grissom." He shot Sara a knowing look. She smiled, nudging him wordlessly.

As he answered, she moved to the other side of her apartment to give him some space, but kept a cautious eye on him from afar.

Despite her assurances to him, she was scared.

Unlike most people, Greg had broken down her defences without even trying and made himself quite comfortable in her heart. To her own surprise, she found that she was comfortable with him there.

She wasn't ready to lose him.

x X x

"Hey!"

Sara looked up at the holler, blinking in surprise.

"Sorry?" She asked. Catherine's lips twitched into a smile, but the concerned frown on her forehead remained in place.

"Are you alright?" She asked, giving her colleague a once-over.

"I'm fine." Sara half-smiled, going back to the notes she had been pretending to read.

Catherine continued to stare at her, not buying the response for a second. Sara looked tired and her usual laser-beam-like focus was nowhere to be seen today. There was clearly something on her mind.

"Have you spoken to Greg?"

The question was posed quietly, with another lurking just beneath it.

Sara lifted her head again, scrutinising the blonde's words with surprise.

"Have you?" She asked at last, silently confirming Cath's suspicions.

"No." Catherine answered, moving around the bench to stand beside Sara. "But I've spoken to Grissom."

Sara nodded in understanding, a tight smile crossing her lips.

"You, uh, you were the one who told him to phone Greg this morning." She realised with a soft chuckle. Catherine shrugged.

"He just needed a nudge." She agreed. "How is Greg?"

"He's okay." Sara swallowed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear in a move that Catherine was beginning to recognise as a sign of nerves. "He's just anxious about the results of his tests. If it is cancer..."

She trailed off, tears springing to her own eyes against her will. Seeing the sudden upset the conversation had caused, Catherine didn't hesitate before wrapping her into a hug.

"Greg's young and healthy. He'll be fine, whatever this is." She mumbled, dragging a hand through Sara's hair. She felt the brunette nod against her shoulder, before the younger woman shuffled out of the embrace, embarrassment written on her features at being caught in such a vulnerable moment.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, wiping at her eyes.

"Don't apologise to me, honey." Catherine smiled, rubbing her arms. Sara sniffed, uncomfortable with being so exposed in the glass-walled lab.

"I'm just scared." She confessed quietly. "He's my best friend; I love him."

Catherine felt her heart constrict. She knew that Greg and Sara had a special sort of relationship, that much was obvious; but she'd never heard the cagey brunette put a name to it before. She suspected that Greg hadn't either.

"Don't let him hear you talking like that." She joked softly. "He might start getting ideas about the two of you again."


	12. Chapter 12

"Something's going on."

"You're being paranoid." Warrick chastised with a sigh.

"No, no I'm not." Nick insisted. "Grissom and Catherine are both being cagey and Greg's a bundle of nerves. _Something_ is going on."

Exasperated with his mate's rambling, Warrick put down his notes and fixed him with a frown.

"What could possibly be going on between the three of them that we don't know?"

"I don't know," Nick exhaled. "But I'm telling you that something's not right."

"Hey," Sara poked her head into the room, interrupting the conversation. "Grissom's looking for you two."

"Hey Sar," Nick called her back before she could disappear. "Do you know what's going on with Grissom and Catherine, and Greg?"

She straightened up and entered the room fully, a suspicious look crossing her face.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they're all on edge about something and I don't know what it is."

Sara flicked her gaze to Warrick who, while still annoyed with Nick's insistence, was also watching her reaction closely.

"Nothing's going on." She stated at last in a guarded tone.

"Then why did Greg have a meeting with the two of them at the start of shift?"

"I don't know." She lied. "But I'm sure it's none of your business."

Nick narrowed his eyes at her, not buying a word of it.

"You know something don't you?" He challenged.

Her expression remained stoic, but her eyes flashed with something unreadable.

"Grissom's looking for you." She repeated, turning on her heel and leaving before they could grill her further.

Nick raised his hands towards Warrick, satisfied that he had proven his point.

"Yeah, alright. She knows something." Warrick conceded. "But she's right. It's none of our business."

"We're a team." Nick scowled. "How are we supposed to trust each other when we know they're keeping secrets from us?"

"Maybe it's not about work, you ever think of that?" Warrick asked, tapping his mate's head lightly. Nick frowned, ducking out of his reach.

"What else could it be?"

x X x

"They were supposed to call with the results today." He muttered, flitting around her as she tinkered with the car engine. "They haven't called, so it must be bad news. That's why they're delaying it."

"I think if it was bad news, they'd be getting in touch sooner, not later." Sara pointed out rationally.

"What if they've found something else?" He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "And they have to do more tests, and that's why they haven't called?"

Sara resisted the urge to sigh. She knew that Greg was worried, but his pacing was beginning to make her dizzy.

Straightening up, she decided to try and take his mind off his impending medical results. And what better way than to fingerprint the entire interior of a car?

"Hey," she called softly. "You want to be recorded as an assist on a homicide case?"

x X x

"Hey, Grissom?"

The boss, lost in his thoughts, suddenly skidded to a halt and stopped to let Catherine catch him up.

"How's Greg doing?"

"He's nervous." Gil sighed. "I've got him helping Sara with that corvette."

"That's good." Cath nodded in agreement. "It'll keep his mind busy."

"Yeah," he sighed, coming to a stop in a quiet corner of the hallway. He dragged a hand over his hair and she noticed for the first time how stressed he looked. He may be socially-inept, but he genuinely cared about his team. Even Greg.

Offering what she hoped was an optimistic smile, she placed a hand on his arm and squeezed it gently. He quirked an eyebrow at the action, before returning the gesture with a weak nod.

"I, uh, I gotta go." He said at last, taking a step back. "Apparently Ecklie's looking for me."

He began to shuffle off in the direction of the layout room, until she called him back.

"I think Ecklie's in his office." She pointed out with a frown, nodding towards the lab director's lair.

"I know." He agreed calmly. "That's why I'm going this way."

She chuckled, shaking her head at his cheeky attitude towards the senior manager. It amused her how she could be both frustrated by his lack of political acumen and impressed with his gall in equal measure.

As they parted ways, Catherine found herself near the garage and decided to see for herself how Greg and Sara were getting on. It wasn't that she didn't trust Gil's judgement, but she was still worried about the young CSI-in-training.

"Hey," she greeted, ambling into the room.

Sara was stood at the front of the car, a streak of grease across her right cheek and a puzzled frown on her face.

"Hey Cat," she mumbled absently, never shifting her gaze.

"Any joy?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with it." The brunette scowled. "The engine checks out perfectly."

Catherine circled the car, inspecting the beautiful design with admiration. She knew why Grissom usually gave Sara these jobs – the young woman loved engines and wasn't afraid to get a bit dirty in the process. Processing a car could keep her entertained for hours.

Catherine, on the other hand, preferred to be in the driving seat, rather than under the bonnet.

As she completed her lap, she shot a casual look in Greg's direction. Sara had set him to task fingerprinting the inside and he was sat in the driver's seat dusting the steering wheel. He looked considerably more relaxed now that he had something to do with his hands; even if he was still wearing a worried little scowl on his face.

"Well, if it wasn't the car, it must have been the driver." Cath mused, coming to a stop beside her colleague again.

"Lots of prints on the dash and steering wheel." Greg chimed in.

"Make sure you check the seat adjuster and mirrors as well. If someone else was driving, they'll have probably touched both."

As Catherine was speaking, she absently reached out to wipe the oil streak off Sara's face with her thumb, causing the brunette to frown at the action, not that Catherine noticed.

Greg caught the movement as well and raised his eyebrows at Sara, who was shooting Catherine a suspicious look.

"Yeah, thanks." She murmured, taking a step out of Catherine's reach. Cath dropped her hand, still too busy contemplating the case to notice the confusion she had inadvertently caused.

After a long moment, she shook off whatever thought was plaguing her and smiled brightly.

"Well, good luck." She chirped, wandering back out and leaving the two alone again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey! This is short and is very much a filler chapter, but it's needed to move the story along to the next part**

**x X x**

"Alright, thanks Nick." Catherine said with a warm smile, effectively releasing him from his welfare catch-up.

The Texan stood up to leave, but stopped before he reached the door and turned back to face her.

"What's going on with Greg?"

The question threw her momentarily, but she covered it well.

"What do you mean?"

"You and Grissom and Sara, you're all being weird around him." He explained, crossing his arms. "What's the deal?"

Her lips twitched into a smile and she sat forward.

"That's not your business, Nicky." She chastised gently. "If Greg wants you to know, I'm sure he'll tell you in his own time."

Nick shook his head in mild frustration.

"You know, I'm trying to get on board with this new team set-up, but it's hard to trust you guys when I know you're hiding things from us."

"We're not hiding anything, Nick." Catherine frowned. "I can't tell you this anymore than I could tell Greg what's going on in _your_ life. It's called confidentiality."

"Right." He nodded, not believing the sentiment, and finally sloped out of the room.

She watched him go, puzzled.

Then again, she understood where Nick was coming from, at least in part. Nick saw their little team as a family and as far as he was concerned there were no secrets in a family.

That still didn't give him the right to know Greg's health concerns, of course.

x X x

If she hadn't already spoken to him, she would have been able to guess the results simply by the way he practically floated into the locker room.

"Having a good day?" She asked with a coy smile.

"Having the best day!" He beamed, sweeping her into a fierce hug. She returned it, taking a long moment to soak up his warm energy.

"I knew that you'd be okay." She mumbled at last, breaking out of the embrace.

"I just feel so ..." he trailed off, a dizzy smile making its way across his face. "We need to celebrate! My place, in the morning after work!"

She smiled wordlessly, which he took to be agreement and bounced back out before she could utter a word.

As he disappeared back into the hall, dancing around a startled Wendy on his way to the break room, the smile on Sara's face faltered.

x X x

"Penny for them?"

Catherine blinked, shaking her head.

"Sorry?" She frowned.

"Your thoughts." Nancy elaborated, meandering away from the window to join her sister on the couch. "You seemed lost in them."

"Hmm." Cath agreed absently, sinking her gaze back into her untouched coffee with a small frown.

"Hey," Nancy nudged her playfully. Catherine settled back against the cushions, pursing her lips.

"I'm just thinking about Sara." She admitted at last. To her surprise, Nancy chuckled.

"Jesus Cath, it's bad enough that you spend half your life at work, without meditating on it at home as well!"

"Hey, you can't blame me for worrying about my guys!" She slapped her sister's leg lightly.

"_Your_ guys." Nancy echoed. "And here I thought you were just looking after them for a while?"

Catherine rolled her eyes and sniffed, electing not to dignify the comment with a response. Alright, technically they were still Grissom's guys, but she had a claim on them as well. After a moment, Nancy sighed.

"Alright, so tell me. Why are you worried about Sara?"

"I ..." Catherine exhaled, mulling it over. "I don't really know. Things were going well between us, but I had her welfare meeting last night and she seems to have ... regressed."

"In what way?"

"She just wouldn't talk to me. She was in a really positive place last time I spoke to her, but last night she completely clammed up. I don't know what's happened."

"Well, did you ask her?" The nurse pressed, earning her a trademark eye-roll.

"Of course I did, but she wouldn't tell me."

"Could it be as simple as she was worried about Greg's cancer scare?"

Catherine cocked her head to the side.

"I suppose," she agreed, although she sounded less-than convinced. "I just don't understand why she wouldn't talk to me. I really thought she'd started to trust me."

Her voice had turned sad and Nancy felt her sympathy growing. She had heard Catherine talk about Sara in mixed terms over the years – sometimes it seemed they were very close, other times Catherine was ready to kill the poor girl herself.

Of course, Nancy knew from experience that that in itself was evidence of how much she cared for Sara. Only the chosen ones could get under her skin the way Sara Sidle seemed to.

"She's probably just having a bad week." She offered by way of comfort. "Give her a couple of days and try again."

"Yeah," Catherine finally put her coffee mug down without ever tasting it and ran a hand over her perplexed expression. "I hope so."


	14. Chapter 14

"Wow," Warrick exhaled. "No wonder you were freaked."

Greg, who was still running on high energy, took a long slurp of his coffee and nodded. Now that his fears had been put the rest, he had finally managed to confess to the boys what had been bothering him.

"It's been a long week!"

"Man, why didn't you tell us?" Nick asked, perching on the arm of the couch beside Greg. The younger man shrugged uncomfortably.

"I didn't really tell anyone." He lied, fidgeting with his coffee mug. "I just wanted to know what I was dealing with first."

"I can see that." Warrick nodded in understanding. Nick opened his mouth to speak, but Grissom's arrival cut off whatever he was about to say.

"Alright ... where are the girls?" The boss looked around the room in bemusement.

"Not here yet." Nick shrugged. Grissom scanned the room again, as if to confirm his statement, before deciding that it didn't matter. He glanced back down at the assignments in his hand and offered one out.

"Alright then, Warrick – you and Greg have a 419 at the Palermo."

"Cool." Greg jumped to his feet and accepted the folder before Warrick could even stand up. The dark-skinned CSI smiled at his enthusiastic partner, glad to see the spark back in his eyes.

"Nick," Gil continued. "You're with me tonight. The girls can work together ... whenever they deign to grace us with their presence."

Nick chuckled, leaving the room with Warrick to get his kit. As the boys left, Grissom stepped into Greg's path before he could follow them.

"Greg, um ... how are you?" He asked awkwardly.

"I'm good." He nodded. "Fine now I know that it's benign."

Grissom pursed his lips, casting his eyes over his youngest team member. As anti-social as he was, he worried about his guys a lot more than he let on. He wanted to say something else, to offer some kind words to the boy, but they wouldn't come. Instead, he offered a simple response.

"Take care of yourself."

Greg's lips twitched into a half-smile.

"I will."

While he shuffled around Grissom to leave, the sound of chatter infiltrated the room as Catherine and Sara finally emerged down the hallway.

"Ah," Grissom smiled tightly. "Nice of you to join us."

Sara managed to look somewhat sheepish for their tardiness, but Catherine never flinched.

"What have you got for us?" She asked mildly impatiently.

"Trash run." He offered her the folder with a bright smile. "Have fun."

x X x

Not for the first time this evening, Catherine silently cursed Grissom's name. Suddenly she longed for the days when Grissom used to let her handle the assignments. At least then she got to pick her own case.

And her own teammate. Although that was something she was at least grateful to Gil for. Granted, he had only paired them together because they were both late, but she was still glad of the opportunity.

She stopped working for a moment and cast her eyes across the scene, where Sara was too busy scrutinising something to realise that she was under scrutiny herself.

Something had been bothering Catherine about the brunette all evening, and she thought she had finally figured it out. It was her shirt. She had seen Sara wear it before; it suited the girl well and hugged her figure perfectly.

At least, it used to. Today, however, she could see it billowing around Sara's slender frame in the breeze.

"Sara," Cath called after a moment, wandering over to her.

"Hmm?"

"Have you lost weight recently?"

Sara looked up, surprised by the question.

"No, why?"

Catherine knew that was a lie, but she let it slide.

"When was the last time you ate something? A proper meal."

"I don't know, a few hours." The young CSI resumed her work, apparently losing interest in the conversation.

"That's not an answer." Catherine pointed out, crouching down so that they were at eye-level. "Give me a time."

Sara stopped what she was doing again and lifted her gaze to her colleague's face, mildly annoyed by the persistent interruption to her concentration.

"Yesterday lunchtime, I guess. Why?"

Catherine was studying her through narrowed eyes.

"You haven't slept either, have you?" She asked, ignoring Sara's question.

Sara rolled her eyes and stood up, causing Catherine to follow suit.

"What is this?" She demanded, throwing her gloved hands out.

"I'm worried about you." Catherine frowned. "Why aren't you taking care of yourself?"

"I'm fine." Sara insisted through gritted teeth, and Cath felt her heart sink a little.

"Fine." She echoed sadly.

How many times had she heard Sara utter that phrase and known damn well that it wasn't true? She thought they'd moved beyond that.

Electing to ignore the obvious concern that had flooded the blonde's face, Sara gestured back to her evidence.

"Can I go back to work now?"

Cath exhaled, waving a hand towards her kit, which was laid open on the ground.

"Yeah, sure." She agreed.

As Sara dropped back to her knees and resumed what she was doing, Catherine continued to stare at her back for a moment.

She thought back to her conversation with Nancy a couple of days ago. She had suggested that Sara's withdrawn behaviour was simply borne of concern for Greg. But, that was no longer an issue.

Of course, Sara had been through episodes like this before; periods of moodiness and distance. Catherine had lost count of the number of times she'd told Grissom to talk to the cagey young women about what was going on.

Naturally, Gil had usually dismissed her concerns as unfounded. On occasion, he had even suggested that she was acting out of resentment towards Sara! But the truth was, she had always cared for Sara in her own complex little way and at times had been genuinely concerned for her.

This was one of those times.

Only, she realised now, she didn't have to defect to Grissom anymore.

Taking a step closer, she placed a firm hand on Sara's shoulder and leant down towards her ear.

"We'll talk back at the lab." She said calmly, making a concerted effort to keep any emotion out of her voice in the hope that it might mollify the brunette's own instinct to react. "Call it a bonus welfare meeting."


	15. Chapter 15

Catherine tapped her foot impatiently as Sara sloped passed her into the small office.

"Alright," she breathed, closing the door and sinking into the chair behind her desk, with Sara falling reluctantly into the one opposite. "What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." Sara frowned, deliberately avoiding her supervisor's questioning gaze.

"Come on Sara," Catherine offered a half smile. "You can't play that game with me. I know that something's bothering you, but I can't help if you don't talk to me about it."

Even from across the desk, she spotted the defensive look creep into the brunette's eyes as her trademark walls began building around her.

"Is it work related?" Cath pressed when her plea was met with nothing but stubborn silence.

"No."

"Okay." She nodded. "So, it's personal. Is it your mother?"

"No."

"Is it health related?"

This time, in response to the question, Sara exhaled and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

"It's nothing you need to worry about." She stated, fighting down on her impulse to lash out in anger.

"I worry about _you_." Catherine rebutted calmly. "I'm not Grissom, Sara. I won't shy away from issues. As long as you're my responsibility, I'm going to ask you these questions. _Is it your health_?"

"No." Sara snapped back through gritted teeth, although her frustrated response wasn't enough to detract from the tears that had finally breached her barriers and starting to creep down her cheeks.

Catherine's face fell at the realisation that her young colleague was crying and she stood up, swiftly rounding the desk. Taking hold of Sara's arm, she gently coaxed her out of the chair and deposited her on the couch, where she sank down beside her.

It was a tactical move; not only was she now close enough to offer physical comfort, but Sara was effectively pinned between herself and the arm of the couch, significantly hindering any escape attempts by the young woman.

"Honey, you know why you and Nick were taken off Gil and given to me to manage?" She asked, softening her voice.

"Yeah, because Ecklie was flexing his muscles as the new Lab Director." Sara mumbled, using her sleeve to dab pitifully at her eyes.

"No," Catherine placed a hand on her arm. "Because Grissom's management of you was lacking. You're supposed to be able to talk to your supervisor about anything and they're supposed to be able to help you. So, tell me what's wrong."

Sara dropped her gaze into her lap, declining to respond.

Releasing a heavy sigh, Catherine reluctantly accepted that she was getting nowhere with this technique and decided to go with her ace card.

She had really hoped that Sara would trust her enough to confide in her, but clearly that was not to be. However, that didn't mean that she was about to walk away from this situation either.

"Alright," she began again. "If you won't talk to me about it, would you consider talking to the PEAP counsellor?"

She knew from Sara's personnel record that she had spoken to Helen before, although admittedly she had no idea how successful those sessions had been. Naturally, Grissom had failed to document the outcome in her notes.

Catherine didn't even know if he had asked her about it. It was something she had been meaning to bring up herself, when the opportunity presented itself.

To her utmost relief, Sara offered a small nod of assent at the suggestion.

"Okay," Cath breathed, standing up. "Stay here, I'll go see if she's free."

"Right now?" Sara looked up, alarm suddenly seeping into her face.

"Yes," Catherine placed a hand briefly on her shoulder as she walked towards the door and squeezed it in a silent instruction for Sara to stay put. "Right now."

x X x

As she meandered her way through the lab and upstairs to the counsellor's office, she considered what could be bothering the young woman so much that she couldn't tell her, but continually came up blank.

She could only hope that someone else would be able to get to the bottom of it. Catherine had found herself referred to PEAP herself following Eddie's death and the minor incident involving the DNA lab exploding. She had completed her mandatory sessions and declined any further assistance, although she had to admit that it had helped to get a few things off her chest.

Reaching the open door, she rapped gently on it and waited for the woman behind the desk to look up.

Helen was about the same age as Catherine, with dyed blonde hair permanently held back in a messy bun and warm brown eyes. She had a mildly southern accent, which only exacerbated her calming nature. In truth, she was born to be a counsellor.

"Catherine, hi." She greeted with pleasant surprise.

Cath stepped into the room, casting a sly glance over her shoulder to ensure that no one was lurking too close that may overhear them.

"Hi Helen, do you have a few minutes?" She asked tentatively. "I have Sara Sidle in my office at the moment and I think she could do with talking to you."

At the mention of Sara's name, something flickered in Helen's eyes that caused the small fear settled in the pit of Catherine's stomach to grow.

"Is she alright?" She asked with genuine concern.

"Honestly, I don't know." Catherine shook her head. "I know that she's upset about something, but she won't tell me what it is. I know she's had some sessions with you before, so I thought you might be able to get more out of her than I can."

Helen nodded, pursing her lips in thought.

"Is she happy to talk to me now?"

"She said she would." Catherine assured her, sending up a silent prayer that Sara hadn't used her few minutes alone to escape.

"Alright," the other woman stood up and moved around the desk. "I'll see what I can do."

x X x

Catherine nudged the door open, relieved to see that Sara hadn't moved an inch. She allowed Helen to brush past her, choosing to loiter in the doorway.

"Hey Sara," Helen greeted calmly. "I understand you wanted to talk to me?"

That wasn't strictly true, but Sara nodded anyway, keeping her gaze low to disguise the tears still suspended in her eyes.

Catherine remained where she was, observing the interaction with some curiosity for a moment, while Helen took one of the chairs from in front of the desk and turned it around to face Sara. The brunette remained closed off and defensive in her stance, but something had definitely shifted with the arrival of the counsellor.

"Would you like Catherine to stay, or would you prefer to talk alone?" Helen asked, sitting down.

Catherine hadn't expected to be afforded the opportunity to remain present for this conversation, assuming that they would want to talk in private, so she was surprised when Helen posed the question.

Sara still didn't look up, but to Catherine's further surprise, her quiet answer was immediate and unwavering.

"She can stay."


	16. Chapter 16

Catherine shot a surprised look at Helen, who silently nodded for her to sit.

She nudged the door shut and sank onto the couch beside Sara, attempting to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

The brunette still hadn't looked up and continued to stare intently at her own hands, which were curled into a ball in her lap.

"Alright," Helen began calmly. "Why don't you tell me what's on your mind?"

Sara shook her head and Catherine felt her heart sink. Despite agreeing to speak to the PEAP counsellor, it seemed her young colleague still wasn't willing to open up. Helen, however, didn't miss a beat.

"Is it about your mother?"

"Kind of."

The quiet confession surprised Catherine, who had already asked that question and received a negative response. However, she declined to speak up in favour of watching the counsellor gently coax information out of the cagey young woman. It was, she found, something of an art form.

"Have you spoken to her?"

"No."

"What about your brother? Have you heard from him?"

Again, Catherine blinked in quiet surprise. She knew Sara had brothers, she had mentioned them briefly in their first meeting, when Sara had reluctantly admitted that she was paying for her mother's long term care. Cath had enquired about anyone who could help, and she believed Sara's exact reply was that her brothers were 'AWOL'.

She realised now, with a hint of regret that she had never bothered to dig deeper on that matter.

"Yes." Sara agreed, her voice cracking slightly. "He called me the other day."

"Okay." Helen shifted in her seat, inadvertently causing Sara to flinch. "What did he want?"

"What does he ever want?" She sniffled, swiping at an escapee tear. "Money."

Catherine continued to sit quietly to avoid breaking the tentative rapport the two women had going, but she couldn't resist the urge to offer some kind of comfort and shifted her hand to gently graze Sara's leg with the back of her knuckles.

This time, Sara didn't react to the movement, but Helen clocked it and nodded subtly at Catherine.

"Did he mention your mother at all?" She continued.

"No, but he never does."

As Helen asked increasingly probing questions and Sara's answers gradually got longer and more detailed, Catherine became acutely aware of two things:

Sara had trusted Helen with a great deal of personal information that she didn't know; and,

Sara had been a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her big brother.

x X x

Sara wiped in vain at her eyes, while Catherine's own tears pooled uninhibited on her lower lids.

"Are you going to be okay?" Helen asked. Sara nodded, still too emotionally drained to form words following her breakdown.

Helen caught Catherine's eye and nodded pointedly towards the door, before standing up.

She placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder.

"If you need to talk to me again, you know where I am."

Sara nodded wordlessly again, her gaze remaining buried in her lap. Catherine followed the PEAP counsellor's lead and rose unsteadily to her feet.

"I'll walk you out." She said, failing to hide the tremble to her voice. Crouching down, she lay a hand on Sara's leg and squeezed it gently. "Stay here a minute, I'll be right back."

She needn't have bothered, as it was abundantly clear that Sara wasn't leaving anytime soon given her current state.

The two women left the office, with Catherine ensuring to close the door behind them to afford Sara some privacy while she composed herself.

"Wow." She breathed as they made their way down the corridor towards the stairs.

"I gather you didn't know any of that?" Helen guessed sympathetically.

"No, I didn't." Catherine shook her head. "I always figured there was something in her past – the way she reacts to certain cases suggested a history of domestic abuse or something; but this..."

"Sara's family was dysfunctional, to say the least." Helen nodded, unfazed. "Her mother was a schizophrenic alcoholic. Her father struggled to keep them financially afloat, which caused a lot of anger and resentment between her parents. Her eldest brother took the brunt of the abuse in the family, which in turn lead to him abusing the younger children. When her mother killed her father, he took off, leaving the younger ones in the hands of the state."

They had come to a stop outside Helen's office and Catherine looked around them for a moment, appearing unusually bewildered. Helen took her arm and gently guided her inside.

"I just ... I don't know how to help her deal with all of this." Cath said helplessly.

"Sara's issues are complicated." Helen offered, somewhat needlessly. "We made some good progress when I was seeing her previously, but once she completed her mandatory sessions, she declined to continue. I was worried that she would regress – evidently, I was right."

"I'll try to convince her to come back for more sessions, but I'm making no promises." Cath sighed.

"That would help." Helen agreed. "But what Sara really needs is specialist support from people who deal with this kind of thing every day. As much as I want to help her, her issues are really beyond my area of expertise."

Catherine nodded slowly, pursing her lips in thought.

"Thank you." She smiled tightly.

Helen nodded, oblivious to the idea that had just planted itself in Catherine's mind.

"If there's anything else I can do for you – or her – my door is always open."

x X x

Catherine veered into the women's bathroom on the way back to her office, relieved to find it empty, and took a few moments to re-compose herself and attempt to fix her tear-stained make-up.

When Sara first began to respond to Helen's questions, Catherine had been optimistic that they might be getting somewhere. But she had not been prepared for the emotional meltdown that had suddenly followed Sara's confession.

At least she finally understood Sara abrupt change in demeanour lately. It was nothing to do with work, or Greg or even her mom. The phone call from her brother had been the trigger.

Now that she knew that, she just needed to figure out what to do about it.

When she finally made it back to her office, nudging the door open and creeping inside, she found Sara sat in the same spot, still attempting to calm her own emotions.

The brunette never flinched when she came in, or when she sat down in the chair Helen had previously occupied and shuffled it at close as she could, effectively trapping her on the couch.

Reaching out, she tentatively placed a hand over both the girl's, which were folded in her lap. When Sara never reacted, she gripped one of Sara's hands and pulled it onto her own lap, dragging the pad of her thumb over Sara's knuckles.

"I'd like to refer you to Victim Services." She began softly.

"What?" Sara blinked, finally making eye-contact. Whatever she had been expecting, that obviously wasn't it.

"If you'll let me." Cath continued hurriedly. "I think they'll be able to help you, probably better than I can."

"I ... I don't need a shrink." Sara frowned, shaking her head and attempting to pull her hand back.

"That's not what this is about." Cath countered, tightening her grip. "We refer victims of sexual offences to them all the time, because they can offer tailored support and put you in touch with other organisations if necessary."

"Catherine, what happened ... it was a long time ago."

"It doesn't matter how long ago it was." Cath stated. "You're still entitled to support. These kinds of services weren't around when you were a kid, but it doesn't mean you can't take advantage of them now."

Sara seemed to consider this for a long moment, her eyes studiously watching Catherine caress the back of her hand.

Eventually, she shifted and attempted to prise herself out of her seat, despite the fact that Catherine had her legs pinned between her own.

"Cat, I ... I just ..." She stammered, succeeding in wriggling out from Catherine's cocoon and standing up. "I just want to forget about it. Please."

Catherine stood up as well, reaching out to grip her arms before she could get too far away.

"Sara, honey, it's not that simple..."

"Yes, it is." She rebutted, taking a deliberate step back out of her supervisor's reach. "I've been doing it for twenty years."

"Sara," Cath persisted, reaching out one last time. However, as soon as her hand brushed Sara's shoulder, the brunette grasped the door handle behind her and swung it open.

"I'm sorry for ... this," she mumbled. "It won't happen again."

Before Catherine even had chance to rebuke her for apologising, Sara was gone.

She stepped out into the hallway and turned to her right, but the brunette was already vanishing around the corner, in the direction of the locker room.

She considered running after her, but quickly decided against it. Sara's nerves were rattled enough as it was and the last thing Catherine wanted to do was draw unwanted attention to the poor girl right now.

Reluctantly, she sloped back into her office and dropped heavily onto the couch that Sara had just vacated.

No, she would give her some time to cool off and try again later. In truth, perhaps they both needed a little time.

After five years, she had thought that she knew Sara pretty well in spite of the brunette's defensive nature. Turns out, she didn't know her at all.


	17. Chapter 17

"Mom!"

Catherine started, almost dropping her mug in her shock.

"Lindsey, what is it?" She asked a little more harshly than she intended, reaching behind her and snatching a cloth off the draining board to mop up the splashes of coffee she had spilt on the table.

"You weren't listening." Lindsey scowled. "_I said_ can I sleep over at Millie's house this weekend?"

Catherine lifted her gaze suspiciously to scrutinise her 12-year-old's daughter's expression.

"Will her parents be there?"

Lindsey rolled her eyes, sinking into a chair beside her.

"Mom..."

"You know the rules, Linds." She cut her off bluntly. "No parents, no slumber parties."

"Her brother will be there." The child offered optimistically. "He's in high school – a senior."

Involuntarily, Catherine flashed back to her conversation with Sara and felt a chill run down her spine.

"No." She said flatly.

Lindsey's sweet face contorted into a frown and she shoved her chair roughly away from the table.

"Uh!" She growled, stomping out of the room. A moment later, Catherine heard a door slam down the hall and nodded slowly, pursing her lips.

"Sounds about right." She muttered, taking a mouthful of her coffee.

She understood Lindsey's frustration – she had been exactly the same at her age. She also suddenly felt a great deal of sympathy for her own mother.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Lindsey – well, not entirely; she was almost a teenager after all and their judgement was notoriously poor.

But it wasn't really Lindsey she was thinking about at all.

Since leaving work, she had not been able to get Sara out of her head. Although it wasn't the Sara she knew – adult Sara – that was haunting her. It was the little girl who had been abused by her brother, neglected by her parents and let down by the system.

Picking up her drink, she moved into the lounge and settled herself on the couch. Her rarely-used laptop was sat under the coffee table and she slid it out now, switching it on and drumming her fingertips on the keypad while she watched the start-up logo whirling on the screen.

The more she thought about her session with Sara and Helen, the more pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

Most obviously, there was Sara's reaction to domestic violence cases. That one had been staring them in the face for years. Then there had been a reference to a Bed and Breakfast, which by all accounts had not been a roaring success and which had been the subject of many of the arguments in the Sidle household.

As the laptop finally logged on, she opened a new web browser page and went straight to Google Maps.

She was ashamed to admit that, until yesterday, she had known very little about Sara's early life. However, one of the first things she had found out when Sara arrived in Las Vegas was that she was not actually born and raised in San Francisco, as most believed.

She was born in Tomales Bay.

Catherine had weaselled that little titbit of trivia out of her within a matter of days and had quite proudly corrected the boys on the matter several months later.

As her browser opened, she tapped 'Tomales Bay' into the search bar and watched as the map spiralled in to a little inlet up the coast of California.

Zooming into the tiny town of Tomales, she went to street view and found herself outside a high school. Taking her little cursor along the main street, she cyber-travelled down the highway towards the coast, until she found herself outside a run-down series of buildings that was once a B&B.

The row of little motel rooms ran parallel to the road, with a parking space angled outside each one. To the right and the further up the bank, looking down on the rooms, sat what she assumed to be the family home.

It obviously hadn't been re-sold since the Sidle family tragedy.

Catherine closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, imagining what it must have been like at the time. It was a tiny community even now. A scandal of this nature must have rocked this little town to the core.

She wondered who many people had known what was going on in that house, but chosen to look the other way. The neighbours who turned up their television to drown out the fights; the teachers pretending not to notice the bruises on Sara's fragile little arms; the doctors who set the same broken bones time and time again.

How many opportunities had been missed to prevent the tragedy that eventually tore Sara's family apart?

Placing the laptop down on the coffee table, she sat back and dragged a hand through her hair.

The reality was that this was a waste of time. She could see where Sara lived, she could research her father's murder, she could find out every little detail of Sara's past ... but none of it was going to help her.

As much as she wanted to fix her troubled young friend's problems, this was simply out of her league.

x X x

Sara closed the album sadly and slid it across the table away from her.

Fourteen. Just like last time.

Fourteen photographs summed up her entire childhood.

Most of them were from the one good foster home she had endured; snapshots of her in the yard, or curled up on the couch with a book. Only three pre-dated her time in the system.

One was of her at four years old, sat between her brothers on the wall outside the B&B. The wind had whipped her hair across her face and her eldest brother had hold of her arms, preventing her from falling. Protecting her, she supposed, although that concept was somewhat foreign to her.

The next was of her sat alone on the beach, her back to the camera, facing the sea. Her head was tipped towards the sun, with her long wavy hair draped down her back, barely grazing the sand.

The final one was her favourite. She was reclined on a chair, with her father crouched down beside her, his arm extended behind her head. Both were smiling, wide genuine smiles. It was the father she liked to remember – the father who used to read Charlotte's Web to her, the father who would lift her onto his shoulders and run into the ocean with her.

It was the father, she realised with an unexpected wave of grief, that she had forgotten.


	18. Chapter 18

**Happy New Year to all my readers! Wishing you all the best for 2020!**

**x X x**

She had no idea how long Sara had been stood there, nervously hovering in the doorway to her little office, but when Catherine looked up and spotted her, the brunette visibly started.

"Oh, hi." Cath smiled, choosing not to call her out on her loitering. "Something I can do for you?"

"Um." Sara cast a glance over her shoulder into the hallway, seemingly regretting having gotten caught. "I ..."

When she trailed off, Catherine put her pen down and fixed her subordinate with her full attention.

"What's wrong, Sara?" She asked, leaving no room for avoiding the question.

Realising that she was cornered, Sara shuffled further into the room and took a few seconds to compose herself.

"Yesterday, after ... after I talked to Helen ... you offered to make a referral to Victim Services." She managed to say eventually, in spite of the stutter she had inexplicably developed. "I know that I turned it down, but ... is it too late to change my mind?"

Catherine blinked, visibly surprised.

"No, no it's not too late." She gestured for Sara to sit down, already reaching for her desk drawer.

As the younger woman tentatively lowered herself into the chair opposite the desk, Catherine produced a pamphlet and a business card from her drawer. She had gathered the literature together anyway, even though Sara had said no. Just in case.

Clearly, someone had been listening to her prayers.

As Sara accepted the pamphlet, Cath took a second to scrutinise her. The brunette looked calmer than yesterday, but not necessarily in a good way.

She looked deflated.

"Can I ask, what changed your mind?" She asked tentatively.

Sara fidgeted, toying with the corner of the leaflet.

"I ... I guess I hadn't realised how much of my childhood I was blocking out." She said, choosing her words carefully. "The bad, and the good. And I'd like to get some of the good memories back, but I don't think I can do that until I deal with the bad."

Catherine smiled weakly. It wasn't exactly the answer she had been expecting; it was better. Evidently, Sara's little breakdown yesterday had been a long time coming and had awoken more than just her tormented emotions.

As she was considering her young colleague's apparent epiphany, Sara reached into her pocket and extracted a photograph, which she caressed for a moment, before handing it over the desk to Catherine.

The little girl in the photo was obviously Sara, and Catherine assumed the male to be her father. There was a clear resemblance – she had his smile.

"I miss him." She offered quietly. "I don't let myself think about him very often, but ... I don't want to forget him."

Catherine felt the same tightening in her chest that she had when she was silently listening to Sara pour her heart out to Helen. Her relationship with Sara had never been particularly tactile; but right now, she just wanted to take her into an embrace, to tell her how proud she was that she was dealing with this and to promise her that it would be okay.

Unfortunately, she didn't get chance to do any of it.

As soon as she opened her mouth to offer some words of comfort, Grissom blundered uninvited into her office with a folder outstretched.

"Catherine, do you have the results for..." Upon seeing Sara sat in front of the desk, he stalled mid-sentence. "Oh, hi."

"What do you want?" Catherine snapped brusquely, causing him to flinch. He flicked his gaze between the two women, slowly realising that he may have interrupted something.

"Ah, I can come back." He started to back out, but Sara leapt to her feet before he could, clutching the pamphlet protectively to her chest.

"No, it's fine." She gushed with a false smile. "I need to go get ready for the start of shift anyway."

"I'll, uh, make that call." Catherine called after her, receiving a small nod of acknowledgement before the girl was gone from sight. Cath turned her gaze towards her unwanted visitor, offering him a petulant scowl.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" She snapped.

"Sorry," he blinked. "I didn't realise I was interrupting."

"Well, you were." She exhaled with frustration.

He stepped tentatively closer to the desk, a coy smile beginning to dance on his lips.

"The joys of playing supervisor starting to wear off, are they?" He guessed playfully. She shot him a dark look, snatching the folder he was offering out of his hands.

"No." She answered curtly.

"Not so easy though, is it?" He pressed, jerking his head in the direction that Sara had disappeared. "Getting them to talk."

Cath exhaled again, brandishing the folder at him.

"Hey, you had your chance with them." She challenged. "I'm doing this my way, so why don't you go back to your bugs and leave me to it."

He did as requested, but flashed a cocky smile on his way out.

She rolled her eyes, tossing his folder onto her already over-crowded in-tray.

Let him think that she was struggling with her little team, what did it matter? In reality, she was the only person in their team who really knew what made Sara the person she was.

And, now that she thought about it, the same went for Nick.

Both of her guys were hiding a secret from the rest of the group, and it turned out that it was the same secret.

Catherine picked up Sara's photo again and studied it. It was creased and faded and had a small tear in one corner. Sara may have been trying hard to forget her father for a long time, but at some point in her life, she had spent a lot of time looking at this picture. Probably when she was in foster care, Cath mused. She would likely have tried to hold on to any family connection that she could.

Of course, Nick didn't have to cling to such feeble mementos to get him through his trauma – he had a large and loving family around him. Still, it was a family who were oblivious to the abuse he had suffered as a child.

Placing the photo carefully on her desk, she picked up the business card for Victim Service's and dialled the number.

x X x

"Hey boss," Nick greeted cheerily, striding into the office. "Got your page. What's up?"

"Sit down, Nicky." Cath smiled warmly, hoping to put him at ease. His brow creased slightly, but he did as asked.

She handed him a pamphlet – the same one she had given Sara – and watched as his expression changed while he studied it.

"Why are you giving me this?" He asked with a boyish grin.

"I've put in a referral to Victim Service's for you." She explained slowly. "For what happened to you when you were a child."

For a whole moment, Nick just stared at her, before her words finally registered and he visibly recoiled.

"What ... what are you talking about, Catherine?" He demanded, half-angry and half-bewildered.

"Nicky, you were abused and you never told anyone about it. I think it would do you good to talk about it with a specialist. Someone who can help you deal with it."

"But, why ... why now?"

"Why not?" She challenged calmly. "What can it hurt to talk to someone?"

"Catherine," he shifted uncomfortably. "I don't need to talk about it. And you ... you had no right to do this behind my back!"

She extended a hand across the desk towards him, but he sat back out of her reach.

"Nicky, these things don't just go away because we want them to." She explained gently. "Look, I can't make you do this. But the contact details are on there – just think about it. Please?"

He looked at the pamphlet again, where he now saw that she had scribbled a name and phone number on the top corner.

Sucking in a deep breath, he stood up and offered it back to her with a cold look on his face.

"Thank you for the offer." He said in a clipped tone. "But I don't need to talk about this – not with you, or anyone else."

As he strode back out, forcing his shoulders back and his head up in a stubborn gesture, she felt her heart sink and tossed the leaflet back onto the desk with a resigned pout.

One out of two wasn't bad, but somehow that didn't feel like much of a consolation.


	19. Chapter 19

"You still with us, girl?"

The question stirred her out of her musings and she managed a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She exhaled. "I'm just having one of those weeks."

"Everything alright, Sara?" Nick asked, sharing a look of mild concern with Warrick.

"Yeah," she repeated, dragging a hand through her hair. "Nothing I can't deal with."

"If there's anything you need, you know where we are." Warrick placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze as he ambled past the bench towards the door. Sara smiled, nodding appreciatively at him. Nick offered her a wink, following his mate out.

Alone in the locker room, Sara exhaled heavily and heaved herself to her feet. Swinging her locker door open, she caught a glimpse of herself in the little mirror tucked inside it and winced. She looked exhausted.

There was no way she was going to get past Catherine tonight.

x X x

"Alright," Grissom declared, wandering into the room nose-deep in a folder. "Nick and Greg, you're with me. Catherine, you're solo tonight – 420. Sara, you and Warrick also have a 420."

Assignments doled out, he left as swiftly as he had entered without ever looking up from whatever had his attention so enraptured.

Sara released a sigh of relief. She had been sitting at the bench, hunched protectively over a cup of coffee, hoping and praying that she would not be working with her over-protective supervisor tonight.

Warrick she could handle. He already knew that she wasn't on top of her game today and would be willing to cut her some slack and not ask too many questions.

However, as the boys began to file out towards the door, Sara felt a presence lean over her shoulder and a low voice mumbled in her ear.

"When you get back from your scene, come find me."

She pursed her lips, shifting her gaze to the side. Catherine had already straightened up and was stalking out of the room, satisfied that her message had been received.

Sara groaned weakly, slinking off the seat.

She had been so close.

x X x

"Alright," Cath closed the door and dropped onto the couch beside Sara. "What's up?"

"I'm fine." Sara said instinctively, before cursing herself. Catherine caught it and nodded slowly.

"'Fine'. We back to that?" She challenged gently. She thought she had gotten the brunette out of that habit, but apparently not.

"I'm sorry." Sara sighed. "It's really not that bad, I've just had kind of a rough week."

"Okay." Cath pushed. "So tell me?"

"Well," Sara choked out a bitter laugh. "My oven broke on Wednesday. My car broke down on Thursday. And my aunt died on Friday."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Catherine said with a frown. "Were you close?"

"No, not really." Sara shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. "It's just another thing that I don't really want to deal with right now."

Sensing the reason Sara didn't want to deal with it, Catherine hazarded a guess.

"Have you heard from your brother again?"

"River?" She set her jaw at the mention of his name. "No. I guess I'll need to try and let him know, if I can find him. Asher and Felix too."

Catherine slipped a hand into Sara's, threading their fingers together.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Sara seemed to seriously consider the question for a moment, her brow furrowing in thought.

"I guess I'll need some time off to go to California and sort everything out." She mused aloud.

"Of course, take as long as you need." Cath agreed.

"Thanks." Sara mumbled, sinking her gaze into her lap. If she had noticed Catherine caressing her knuckles, or if she was bothered by it, she didn't let on; something which caused a small flicker of gratitude to spark in Catherine's heart.

After a moment of silence, Cath cleared her throat.

"While I've got you here, how was your first counselling session?"

Sara blinked at her, surprised.

"How did you know?"

"I asked them to keep me in the loop." Catherine explained. When Sara's eyes widened, she quickly held up her hands. "Just about when you've completed your minimum sessions – not about what you discuss. That's confidential."

Sara nodded, appeased.

"It went okay, I guess." She answered with a non-committal shrug. "I'm still not sure about it all."

"Give it some time." Cath assured her. "It'll help, I promise."

Sara narrowed her eyes at her colleague, attempting to read something behind her blue orbs.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked.

"Of course." Cath answered easily, tightening her grip on Sara's hand.

"Why are you so concerned about this?"

The older woman cocked her head to the side, puzzled by the question.

"Shouldn't I be concerned?" She asked. When Sara shrugged helplessly at her, Cath's lips spread into a warm smile. "Sara, the people who were supposed to look out for you when you were little didn't do it. Now, it's my responsibility to look out for you, and I'm not going to make the same mistakes that they did."

Sara was scrutinising her closely as she spoke.

"So, this is a guilt thing?" She asked.

"No." Catherine leant into her, nudging her shoulder playfully. "I know that you like to play superwoman and pretend that nothing can hurt you; but I also know you better than that. Whether you want to admit it or not, there's a lot of trauma there that needs healing."

"I guess." She shifted, a small frown settling on her face. "I just don't know whether I'm strong enough to tear my past apart, or whether I'll be able to put all of the pieces back together."

It was a quiet confession, but it caused a ripple of shock to run through Catherine. For the first time since she had met Sara, she felt like she was seeing the true person – no mask, no bravado. Just raw truth.

Reaching across her colleague, she took both of Sara's hands and turned her around so they were facing each other on the couch.

"You are one of the strongest people I know." She promised her earnestly. "I know it won't be easy, but I also know that you'll be even stronger for it afterwards."

"If I get through it." Sara pointed out sceptically.

"Well," Catherine inched closer, caressing her hands. "If you start to struggle, all you have to do is tell me and I can take some of the pressure off you."

Sara offered a mildly incredulous look, prompting Catherine to nudge her again.

"I'm serious. I can reduce your workload, keep you off the high profile cases for a while. There's no reason you have to be on top of everything all the time. You just focus on yourself and leave everything else to me."

Sara had dropped her gaze and for a moment Catherine thought she was going to decline the offer. She knew how much Sara's work meant to her and the idea of taking a step back from the big cases would go against everything that motivated her.

However, when she finally looked up, Cath got another glimpse of that unbridled honesty. It was the eyes, she realised. When Sara left her eyes unguarded, they revealed every emotion lurking beneath.

"Thank you."


	20. Chapter 20

"Okay guys," Ecklie strode into the room, cutting off their hushed conversation mid-sentence. "The Sheriff wants this case dealt with as expeditiously as possible – the commissioner being caught at the scene of a double murder does not look good, so we need to get it wrapped up as soon as possible."

"Okay, well we're going to need a lot of hands on the scene." Grissom exhaled. "We'll take Sara, Warrick and Greg – Nicky can pick up the slack with the Summerlin burglaries."

"No." Catherine interjected. "Put Sara on the burglaries – Greg can work the main scene with us and then help her out once we're done with evidence collection."

"Sara will be better working the homicides." Grissom frowned, puzzled by the switch. "Nick always wants to work solo."

"No, I want to keep Sara off this one." She insisted firmly. "She'll be fine."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a sly smirk spreading its way across Ecklie's lips.

"Catherine, what's going on?" He asked, as Grissom also raised a curious eyebrow.

"Nothing." She said as nonchalantly as she could. "Sara just has some stuff going on; she doesn't need the pressure of a high-profile case right now."

Ecklie continued to wear his cocky grin, but it was Grissom who was making her uncomfortable as he appraised her with a sceptical frown.

"Catherine," he licked his lips, gathering his thoughts. "If Sara can't cope with her workload..."

"She can." She cut him off abruptly, making a point of catching Ecklie's eye as well. "But as her supervisor, I need to put her welfare first and I don't believe it would be in her best interests to work this case right now. Do either of you have a problem with that?"

The tone of her voice didn't leave much room for argument and Grissom pursed his lips silently.

"Alright," Ecklie conceded, his expression faltering ever so slightly. "Send Sara to Summerlin and have Greg join her as soon as he's available."

Satisfied that he had done his job, he left, casting a sly look in Catherine's direction on his way out. She had no doubt that he was revelling in the fact that Sara was struggling, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that he had got to her.

Alone, Grissom turned to face her.

"I guess we'd better round up the guys and get going." She said, trying to step around him.

"What's going on with Sara?" He asked, ignoring her.

"That's not your concern." She answered immediately. He held her gaze for a long moment, as if trying to search for the answer in her face. Eventually, he dropped his eyes and she stepped around him towards the hall, although she could still feel him watching her long after she left the room.

x X x

"Hey Sara," Nick breezed into the locker room. "Tough shift."

"Yeah, I heard." She hummed, her back remaining to him while she rummaged through her bag, perched on the edge of her locker. "You guys making headway with it?"

"Yeah, I guess." He mused, pulling his t-shirt over his head and tossing it onto the bench. "We've still got a lot of stuff to go through though."

His movements caught her eye and she cast a quick glance over her shoulder, losing her grip on her bag in the process and causing it to slip onto the floor.

Nick turned at the sound, raising an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic clumsiness. Sara muttered something under her breath, crouching down to pick up her stuff. Nick, abandoning his search for a clean shirt for the time being, moved around the bench and knelt down to help.

"Thanks." She mumbled gratefully, accepting the items he offered out to her. As she tossed them back into her bag, Nick spotted something which had slipped under the bench and he picked it up, his stomach slowly sinking at the familiar logo.

"Hey, where did you get this?" He asked, his voice hitching. She flicked her eyes up to see what he was holding and her brown orbs widened.

"That's nothing." She answered hurriedly, snatching it back out of his hands and standing up.

He rose with her, pointing at the leaflet which was now stashed in her bag once again.

"Where did you get it?" He repeated. "Did Catherine give you that?"

"Maybe." She answered, studiously avoiding his gaze. "What's it to you?"

He stared at her for an uncomfortably long moment, weighing up the situation. He couldn't believe that Catherine would share his most intimate secret with Sara, but that was the same leaflet she had shown him when she tried to refer him to a counselor. Which could only mean...

"Did ... did Catherine make a referral for you?" He asked, lowering his voice. This time when Sara flicked her gaze towards him, she held it for a moment.

"Yeah, she did." She answered quietly, casting her eyes downward again. Nick's expression softened. Suddenly it made sense why Catherine had randomly decided to make a referral for him now, after all this time. She had been killing two birds with one stone.

"Yeah, me too." He offered, suddenly feeling exposed – and not just because of his state of undress. Sara looked up, attempting to read him. Nick usually wore his heart on his sleeve, but right now he was wearing a mask that she couldn't quite see through.

"You're going too?" She queried carefully.

"No, no I turned it down." He explained, crossing his arms over his bare chest. She nodded slowly.

"You should go." She replied as non-judgementally as she could. "They ... they do help."

Although neither had actually proffered an explanation regarding why Catherine had made referrals for them, a silent understanding passed between the two of them, and the mask started to slide away.

Wordlessly, Nick reached out and dragged Sara into a strong hug. The move caught her off guard, but she returned it, wrapping her arms around his back, feeling his hot breath behind her ear.

"Hey now," Warrick's playful voice interrupted the sweet moment. "You're supposed to hang a tie on the door."

Sara laughed nervously, stepping out of Nick's reach and turning her back to the room to hide the blush creeping up her cheeks. Nick picked up his shirt from the bench and tossed it playfully at Warrick, making a joke that Sara never heard.

As the two boys began to rib each other, Sara excused herself and slipped towards the door, casting a grateful smile back at Nick on her way. In return, he raised his hand to his face in an 'I'll call you' gesture.

x X x

"Ahem."

The quiet interruption drew her attention to the door and she looked up, a warm smile spreading across her lips.

"Hey Nicky," She greeted. "What's up?"

"Hey Catherine," Nick stepped into the room, gesturing towards the door. "Do you mind?"

"No, go ahead." She frowned, watching curiously as he closed the door and peered through the blinds to make sure no one was heading this way who might interrupt them.

"What's going on, Nick?" She asked gently, sensing the waves of nervousness washing off the young man as he shuffled his feet in front of her.

"Well, I ... I wanted to ask you..." he fidgeted, taking a moment to steady himself. "I wanted to ask you whether you still had that number for the counseling service."

She had been running through a list of possible concerns in her head, but that had not been something she expected him to say. She blinked, staring at him for a long moment, before reaching into her drawer and extracting the pamphlet. He smiled gratefully, accepting it with a shaky hand.

"Why the change of heart?" She asked carefully. He sniffed, clearing his throat.

"I , uh, I talked to Sara." He answered, causing something to flicker across her face before she had chance to hide it. Nick nodded in understanding at her wordless confession. "Yeah, I know that you referred her as well."

"Nick, you know that I can't discuss anything pertaining to Sara with you..."

"It's okay," he held up his hands. "She told me, about her brother."

If Catherine was surprised by this turn of events, she was shocked to hear this, but tried to disguise it behind professional protocol.

"Be that as it may, anything she's told me in confidence..."

"Relax, Cath." Nick smiled, a wide kindly smile. "I'm not here to talk about that anyway. I just wanted to get this, and to say thanks."

She shook her head in bemusement.

"For what?"

"For looking out for me. And her. She told me what you've done for her and how much the counseling has helped her." He waved the leaflet in the air. "I guess it can't hurt to give it a go, right?"

"Right." She smiled proudly at him. She genuinely had not expected him to change his mind, and she certainly had not expected her two teammates to take it upon themselves to confide in one another. Maybe she didn't have to worry about them so much after all?

He turned to leave, folding the leaflet into his pocket. At the door, she called him back.

"Hey Nicky," she exhaled, practically feeling a weight lift off her shoulders. "I'm really glad that you and Sara talked to each other."


	21. Chapter 21

She tilted her head towards the sun, enjoying the late summer desert heat. She had a streak of paint across her cheek and another across her leg, but in this moment she couldn't care less.

Just as she was about to resume painting the fence, the music that had been playing to itself from the radio stopped. Turning towards the sudden silence, she was surprised to find that she was being observed.

Catherine was stood in her yard, one hand on the now muted radio and a bright smile on her face.

"Hi." Sara greeted, placing her paintbrush carefully across the top of the tin and wiping her hands on a cloth as she wandered over to her unexpected visitor.

"So, this is how you spend your days off?" Catherine nodded towards the half-blue fence at the bottom of the yard. Sara laughed softly.

"Well, it'll be worth it when it's done."

"I bet." Cath agreed, casting her eyes lazily around the garden. "This is a nice place – certainly suits you better than your old one."

"Yeah," Sara agreed, a wistful smile landing on her face as she surveyed her new home. The garden was reasonably big, with steps leading down from the house. From the patio, where she and Catherine currently stood, she could see Lake Mead in the distance – the main reason Sara had moved out of the city to Boulder.

There was both grass and a pebbled area, complete with a small tree in the middle and little Buddha statue sat underneath. Between the earthy touches, the oriental features and the bright flowers, it was very Sara.

Having decided that her chores could wait, Sara produced two beers from a small cooler beside the table and offered one to Catherine, who happily accepted the invitation.

"So, what brings you way out here?" She asked, sinking into a chair and gesturing for Catherine to follow suit.

"I just dropped Lindsey off with my mother." Cath explained, making herself comfortable under the shade of the parasol. "I thought I'd call in and see your new place while I was passing."

"I see." Sara smiled. To be honest, she was surprised that the blonde had resisted the urge to check out her new abode for this long. "Well, there are still a few things to do, but it's coming along."

Cath nodded, casting her eyes back towards the house. Even from here, she could see through the open glass doors into the half-decorated kitchen-diner.

"So," she drawled, taking a mouthful of her beer. "I hear that you and Nick have been talking?"

The brunette offered a soft laugh, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't intend on telling him – he saw the pamphlet for Victim Services and it just kind of fell into place for him."

"Hey, don't apologise." Catherine smiled. "I think it's great that you two have opened up to each other about this. It's probably what you both needed."

"Oh." Sara nodded, a soft frown settling on her face. "Well, it's still not easy – Nick hasn't told anyone before – except you, of course – so he's still trying to find the words to explain it all."

"I'm sure talking to you will help." Cath mused, pointing her beer towards Sara. "Just keep me in the loop – both of you."

"We will." Sara promised, giving Catherine a glimpse of that increasinly familiar little sparkle in her eyes. She looked better, Cath realised. Perhaps it was the sun, or the fact that she was out of the office in her own space, but she looked more at peace.

Perhaps she was finally laying her demons to rest?

"Good." She flashed her own smile. "So, you checked out any of the water sports at Lake Mead yet?"

The change of subject seemed to satisfy Sara, who instinctively turned towards the view.

"I have, actually." She agreed. "It's still not the same as being at the beach, but it was nice to get back into the water again."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Cath chuckled, genuinely pleased to see her usually tense colleague looking so at ease with her life.

"You should come down one afternoon." Sara suggested cheerfully.

"Ha, no thank you." She laughed dryly. "I'm happy enough on dry land."

"It's a lot of fun." Sara teased playfully.

"I tell you what – I'll come and sit on the side with a cocktail, while you play in the water?"

"Fair enough." Sara agreed, flashing another bright, endearing smile.

As they drained the last of their drinks, Sara took the empty bottles and tossed them into her recycling.

"Have you eaten yet?" She asked. "I was going to order something in – you'd be welcome to stay?"

Catherine considered the offer, cocking her head to the side.

"I have a better idea." She suggested, rocking to her feet and ambling over. "Why don't you go inside and get changed, and we can go out for food? There's a great little restaurant in Boulder that I haven't been to in ages."

"Sure, okay." Sara agreed brightly. "Come on in, I can give you a tour of the place before we go."

Catherine grinned.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Unsurprisingly, the inside of the house was very similar to the garden – open, clean and full of little 'Sara-esque' touches.

Granted, there was still some decorating to do, but the majority of the painting had been done – all colours, not a magnolia wall in sight. She seemed to favour the earthy-colours, greens and cappuccino-brown; but the splashes of orange, red and blue complimented central themes nicely.

However, there was one glaring absence in Sara's new home.

Every wall had something on it – a print, a cityscape, a framed poster from a classic movie. There was a large picture of San Francisco hanging on the wall behind the couch, which was almost entirely black and white, apart from the Golden Gate Bridge, which stood out in all its red glory.

But there was not a single family photograph.

The closest thing, she noted with a hint of sadness, was a framed photo of all the team together, stood on a bookcase alongside a stack of CDs. It had been taken in Frank's diner, at the end of a very long trial.

CSI truly was the only family Sara had ever really had.


	22. Chapter 22

"Hey gorgeous."

The playful greeting startled Sara, who stopped attempting to drag a stuck comb through her untamed hair and turned to find Catherine grinning at her from the threshold.

"Hey." She replied, turning back to the mirror in her locker and resuming her previous actions. Chuckling to herself, Catherine ambled over and carefully took hold of Sara's wrists, prising them away and coaxing the comb out of the brunette tangles herself.

"Thank you." Sara mumbled sheepishly as Cath handed her the comb and used her fingers to carefully unknot her curls and drape them across her shoulders.

"I'm glad you're here." She said, finally dropping her hands and stepping back to admire her work. "I have something for you."

"Really?" Sara quirked an eyebrow curiously.

After rifling through her bag for a moment, Catherine finally presented her with a delicately wrapped gift, adorned with gold ribbon.

Sara turned it over in her hands, raising a curious eyebrow at her colleague.

"It's not rigged." Catherine joked.

With a smile, Sara sank onto the bench and tugged gently on the ribbon, watching it fall open. Peeling away the paper, she was surprised to find herself staring at ... herself.

At least, the person she used to be.

The photograph – the one of her and her father – had been reprinted, blown up and placed in a beautiful silver frame.

As she stared down at the familiar image, now so clear and bright, she sensed Catherine lean down behind her and felt her breath behind her ear.

"I thought your house looked like it needed a few more photos."

Sara opened her mouth to speak – to say thank you ... to say anything, in fact ... but nothing came out.

"Hey Cath," Grissom interrupted, poking his head into the room and taking a moment to scrutinise their close proximity. "We have a 419 at a circus just off the strip – are you free to take it?"

"Clown lose his sense of humour?" She joked, straightening up and accepting the assignment slip.

"No, an elephant lost his patience with his trainer."

"Elephants?" Sara's ears pricked up and she suddenly found her voice again. "I'll go with you."

Catherine shot a look at Grissom, who shrugged his assent.

"I'll be in autopsy for a while, keep me in the loop." He said, waving a hand at them before shuffling off in the direction of the morgue.

Catherine was already rifling through her locker, getting herself ready, while Sara remained on the bench clutching her frame.

Slowly, she got to her feet and crept towards her colleague.

"Cat ... I ..."

Catherine smiled sweetly at her bashful stuttering. Swinging her locker door closed, she stepped up to Sara and wrapped her into a hug.

"You're welcome." She answered the unspoken thanks, peppering a kiss on her cheek.

When she moved out of Sara's personal space, she noted the pink blush that had crept up the brunette's cheek and playfully cupped her chin for a second.

"Unless you plan on bringing your dad with us, why don't you put that away and I'll meet you at the car."

Sara glanced down at the frame still sitting in her hands. Her father's beaming smile and dark eyes practically glistened behind the pristine glass. She hadn't seen his face so clearly since he was alive.

By the time she looked up, with tears in her own eyes, she was alone in the room.

x X x

"So, the body was found in the elephant pen by an assistant. First assumption was that he'd been trampled, but when the paramedics turned up to pronounce they found a bullet hole in his back. To the best of my knowledge, elephants don't use guns." Brass explained jovially, leading them into the pen.

"Where's the elephant?" Sara asked, her trained eyes scrutinising the pitifully small area with a heavy heart.

"Outside. A vet is on his way from the zoo. There are a load more animals through there."

"Thanks Jim," Catherine said, effectively dismissing the detective, who took his cue to leave the women alone.

Opening her kit, Catherine took out her flashlight and cast it over the messy scene.

"Well, we're not going to get any shoe prints with all this hay on the ground." She noted with a frown. "We might get something from the perimeter, but whoever shot him is most likely associated with the circus, so would have legitimate access anyway."

As she circled the body, it quickly became apparent that she was talking to herself, since Sara was already heading off in the direction of the other animals.

Rolling her eyes, Cath sighed and made to follow her through the curtain into the adjoining tent.

The next area looked very similar to the one they had just come from, with one glaring difference. On the far side of the tent, chained to a metal post that was dug into the ground, was a beautiful, snarling white tiger.

And to Catherine's absolute horror, Sara was frantically trying to unchain it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked, taking an instinctive step back.

"He's bleeding!" Sara protested, audibly distressed.

When she finally managed to lift the chain over his head, Catherine held her breath, waiting for it to launch.

To her surprise – and utmost relief – once released, the animal flopped onto the ground with exhaustion. Sara immediately dropped to her knees beside him, her gentle hands running over his blood-stained fur.

Building up her courage and creeping tentatively closer, Catherine could see now that the chain was far too high up the pole, it had been holding him upright and cutting into his neck as his weak body gave out on him.

"He needs a vet." Sara said, pulling her water bottle out of her belt holster.

"Okay, I'll hurry them up." Cath agreed. "Will you just get your hands away from his teeth, please?"

Ignoring her, Sara managed to pour some water into her cupped hands and held them up to his mouth, where his tongue lapped weakly at the cooling liquid.

Keeping one cautious eye on them, Cath extracted her cell phone.

"Jim, where's the ETA on that vet?"

He said something in response, but she didn't hear a word of it as she found herself mesmerized by Sara's gentle actions towards the injured beast and the way his scared eyes seemed to be watching her every move. Somehow, despite all the abuse and trauma this animal had experienced in his life, he seemed to know that Sara was no threat.

That, or he was simply too weak to attack her. Either way, Sara didn't seem to care.


	23. Chapter 23

"Okay Catherine, we're about ready to go."

"Thanks David," she nodded, watching the coroner's assistant and his lackey begin moving the body out. As they ducked under the tent entrance, they passed Brass coming in and exchanged a polite greeting with the detective.

"Alright, I've taken statements from all the staff. None of them saw anyone suspicious in the area or heard a gunshot." Jim declared, stalking into the middle of the scene.

"So they say." Cath nodded disbelievingly, stripping off her gloves and tossing them into an evidence bag. "Hey, have you seen Sara anywhere?"

"Yeah, she's talking to the conservationist." He nodded in the direction of the parking lot. "It seems she's tracked down some charity that's willing to take the animals."

"Of course she has." Catherine smiled. Standing up and dusting off her jeans, she headed outside herself in search of her elusive colleague.

Rounding the corner into the parking lot, she couldn't help but laugh at the sight before her.

Sara was stood talking to an animated young man, with a small monkey casually perched on her shoulder. As they talked, she periodically handed pieces of fruit up to the animal, who took each one in its tiny hands and sniffed it before eating it.

When the conversation appeared to come to an end, Catherine wandered over, shaking her head in amusement.

"I hope you've had all your shots." She teased playfully. Sara smiled, electing not to answer. She clicked her tongue, encouraging the monkey down onto a perch, where Catherine reached out tentatively to stroke his head with the tip of her finger. It was clear from the look in her eyes that Sara was quite enamoured with the little critter, who completely ignored Cath in favour of gripping the brunette's hand, searching for more snacks.

"You really love animals, don't you?" Catherine noted with a fond smile.

"Yes, I do." Sara agreed easily, tickling the primate behind his oversized ears. "They're beautiful. And they don't judge you; they don't expect anything from you except respect for their right to exist."

Catherine had always known that Sara was an animal lover; that was no great secret. But seeing her now as she fawned over the little monkey, she noticed something that she had never had the opportunity to see before.

Sara – defensive, protective, private Sara Sidle – was completely unguarded. Cath had seen brief flickers of this, moments where Sara let her walls down for a few seconds; long enough to get a tiny glimpse of her soul. But right now, as she focused her whole energy on the animal, those walls were nowhere in sight. With animals, Sara was a completely open book.

Apparently, what it took for Sara to truly open up, was the unbiased and honest love and respect that only an animal can offer.

Suddenly, Catherine didn't feel so bad for having struggled to reach her for all these years. It wasn't just hard work, it was virtually impossible.

Yet right now she was stood here, staring at a completely unguarded Sara and she suddenly felt incredibly privileged. How few people had ever seen this much of the cagey young woman?

If only she could figure out how to capture this moment in a bottle, she'd hold on to it forever.

x X x

"I'll log the evidence in the vault." Sara said, peeling off from Catherine in the direction of the storage room, while the blonde veered towards Grissom's office to update him.

Nick, emerging from the break room, quickly dodged between the two women.

"Hey, have you checked her kit?" He pointed at Sara mischievously, although the comment was aimed at Catherine. "Make sure she hasn't smuggled any exotic animals back with her?"

"Oh, don't tempt me." Sara shot back with a grin.

Nick and Catherine exchanged a laugh, before Catherine continued on her path into Grissom's office. She was still chuckling to herself in amusement when she entered the room and almost walked straight into the back of someone.

"Oh." She blinked, catching herself in time. "Conrad."

He cast a brief glance over his shoulder, nodding curtly at her in agreement.

"Ecklie needs to talk to us about the current supervisory situation on Grave." Grissom explained. He was stood behind his desk, shifting his weight from one foot to the other in a blatant show of nerves.

"Alright." Catherine shuffled around the boss to lean against Grissom's desk, an apprehensive feeling beginning to settle in her stomach. "What's going on?"

"The Undersheriff and I have reviewed the current situation and the improvements that have been made to the personnel files for Grave." Ecklie explained tensely. He appeared visibly uncomfortable, as if he was unhappy about the decision that had been reached. "Since the files now appear to be in order, the Undersheriff feels that the issues have been suitably rectified and the team can be reunited under Grissom's supervision – assuming you both agree?"

"Well, that's good news." Grissom declared, instantly relaxing.

However, Catherine's expression must have belayed her feelings on the matter, as Ecklie shifted his gaze to hers and a sly smirk spread across his lips.

"Catherine?" He queried, faux concern lacing his voice. "Do you have any issues with that?"

She could feel Gil's eyes burning into the back of her head and suddenly felt herself warped back to the day Ecklie had first split up the team. Grissom had been staring at her then too, horror and betrayal written on his features at her willingness to go along with the plan.

She told him at the time that she only agreed because she didn't want to see the whole team torn apart. And now it was going to be put back together again ... so what objection could she possibly have now?

"No." She cleared her throat at last and straightened up, feeling the bitter taste of her own lies on her tongue. "No, I have no problem with that."


	24. Chapter 24

"Ahem."

Ecklie looked up at the tentative interruption to his thoughts and was both surprised and perturbed to find Sara Sidle shuffling awkwardly in his doorway.

"Sara." He greeted coolly. "What can I do for you?"

She stepped nervously into the office, casting a furtive glance over her shoulder to ensure that she wasn't being observed.

"I was just wondering if you had a minute?" She asked hopefully. "I kinda have a favour to ask you."

At last, his interest peaked enough for him to put his notes aside and he gestured to the chair opposite his desk. It was not like the brunette to approach him of all people for a favour and something about her edgy behaviour had him unsettled. He watched her carefully as she made a point of closing his door before sitting down.

"What can I do for you?" He asked, folding his hands on the desk.

"Well, it's about this supervisor situation." She began.

"That's been dealt with now." He cut her off with a frown. "The Undersheriff and I agreed that Grissom can resume supervising you and Nick again."

"Yeah, I know. They told us last night." She nodded, pursing her lips. "And don't get me wrong, that's great; but ... I was wondering whether it would be possible for Catherine to continue as my supervisor – permanently?"

Intrigued, he sat forward and fixed her with a piercing look.

"Why?"

She had been expecting that, but she still wasn't quite prepared to answer it. Sensing her hesitation, he straightened up again.

"Has Grissom done something?" He asked. When she paused again, he pressed further. "Has he done something, or said something, to make you feel uncomfortable?"

"No, not ... nothing like that." She frowned, shaking her head fervently. "Grissom ... I just ... I feel a lot more comfortable with Catherine as my manager."

It was abundantly clear from her quiet voice and her stunted answers that she was not prepared to go into more detail right now and, despite his best efforts, he found himself feeling oddly sorry for her.

He had always assumed that Sara's behaviour had simply occurred because she was a disobedient maverick who liked to play by her own rules. However, the last few months had proven him wrong – with Catherine as her supervisor, she had been calmer, more professional and even – God forbid – taken a day off every once in a while.

Perhaps her previous difficult behaviour truly was as a result of Grissom's mismanagement.

Clearing his throat, he regained her restless attention.

"Have you spoken to Catherine about this?"

She looked up, relieved that the conversation had moved beyond her motives for the time being.

"Not yet, I wanted to see whether it was even possible first."

"Well, I'll need to speak to the Undersheriff again, as well as Catherine and Grissom, but I'll see what I can do."

Standing up, he ambled over to his filing cabinet and rifled through it, eventually pulling out a form and returning to his desk.

"Of course, it will all depend on whether or not Catherine is willing to take on the extra responsibilities on a permanent basis." He continued.

"Of course." She nodded, starting to feel her nerves settle a little. He hadn't said no; that was a good start.

"So, you're requesting a complete transfer – Catherine would be responsible for your monthly and annual reviews, your case reports, any disciplinary action..."

"I understand." She agreed, trying to ignore the look he shot her at the mention of disciplinaries. "I'm happy to continue answering to her."

"Okay." He smiled tightly. "Let me make some phone calls and I'll get back to you."

As she scampered hurriedly from the office before he could retract his sudden kindness, she sent up a silent thank you to whoever had been listening to her prayers. That had gone much better than she was expecting it to.

Now she just had to hope that Catherine was willing to keep her.

x X x

"Man, it's good to finally get things back to normal." Nick whistled as he laced up his boots. "This place was starting to feel like a war zone."

"Yeah, well I just hope that it keeps Ecklie off Grissom's case for a while." Warrick hummed, clipping his holster onto his belt. As he turned, he caught sight of the third member of their team, lurking quietly half-inside her locker. "What about you Sara?"

She visibly winced before glancing reluctantly over her shoulder to face them.

"What?" She asked as nonchalantly as she could.

"What do you think about all of this – are you glad to be back on Grissom's team?"

She felt Nick's eyes on her, but avoided his gaze. He had previously called out her on her apparent disloyalty to Grissom over this matter and was obviously curious to see what she was going to say now that normal service had been reinstated.

"I don't know," she deflected. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens."

The boys shared a look at her evasive non-answer and Nick opened his mouth to question her further on it, but a stern look from Warrick silenced him.

"Yeah." The dark-skinned CSI hummed in sceptical agreement, watching with a curious raised eyebrow as Sara practically crawled back into her locker in retreat again.

It had not escaped his notice that she had been very quiet when Grissom and Catherine had made the announcement at the beginning of the previous shift. In fact, he had been working with both women all night and neither of them seemed thrilled with the development.

Of course, it made sense that Catherine wouldn't be that happy – she was being demoted back to her prior position and salary, after several months of being a supervisor. But Sara ... he had no such excuse for being in a bad mood about all of this.

x X x

Catherine stalled outside Ecklie's office, surprised to find Grissom stood there as well, looking uncharacteristically irritated.

"Oh, hi." She blinked.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I wish I knew." She shrugged, brushing past him into the office. Ecklie looked up at their arrival and nodded in curt greeting.

"Guys, have a seat." He gestured opposite him. Sharing a look, they both took up their positions behind his desk, feeling an unsettling sense of déjà vu sink in. Last time they were summoned here, it was because he was breaking up the team; but he'd only just put it back together now, so this must be something else, surely.

"So, what's this about Conrad?" Catherine asked, straight to the point.

He pursed his lips, looking between them. He deliberately hadn't given anything away in his request; he had simply sent them both a message asking them to come to his office. Partly, this was so that he could see their expressions when he broke the news to them, but he was also curious to see how they would respond to being called in here in the first place, so soon after his last announcement.

Predictably, Grissom's defences were up. Catherine, on the other hand, was much harder to read. She appeared curious, but not altogether concerned.

"I had a visit earlier today," he began cryptically. "From Sara."

He watched their reactions carefully. Catherine simply raised an eyebrow, shooting a questioning look in Grissom's direction, while Gil looked undeniably startled by this news.

"She asked a favour of me." He continued when neither responded to his statement. "It would appear that the last few months have had something of a positive effect on her – so much so, that she has requested that Catherine remain as her supervisor ... on a _permanent_ basis."

"She what?" Grissom barked, his jaw falling open. Ecklie smirked, pleased to have elicited the intended result. At this wordless response, Grissom turned to his counterpart, who was also blinking in shock. "Did you know about this?"

"No," Catherine frowned almost indignantly at the accusation. "No, she hasn't said a word about this to me."

"She wanted to check with me first as to whether it was feasible." Ecklie interjected on Sara's behalf. "I've already spoken to the Undersheriff. There will be some contractual and financial issues to sort, but he's happy to approve this ... if you're on board?"

The question was directed at Catherine, but Grissom answered.

"No." He declared. "CSIs don't get to choose their supervisors."

Ecklie dragged his gaze reluctantly from Catherine's startled expression to Gil's scowl.

"Actually, they can." He countered. "Not that it's ever happened before, but there's nothing in the book to stop them from asking."

"I followed your rules." Grissom shook his head in bemusement. "I played along with your little game and I proved myself to you and the Undersheriff. You can't just come in take Sara off me now."

"I'm not taking her off you, Gil." Ecklie snapped tiredly, sitting forward. "_She_ doesn't want you as her supervisor anymore."

The words, despite being delivered with exasperation rather than venom, seemed to hit Grissom like a slap and he recoiled at their sting.

Leaving him to recover for a moment, Ecklie turned his attention back to Catherine. If her expression was anything to go by, she hadn't even been paying attention to the argument going on beside her, as she stared into the middle-distance.

"Catherine?" He called, causing her eyes to snap to his. "Do you agree to this?"

She held his gaze for a long time, as if trying to assess the question from every angle, before turning slowly to meet Grissom's accusatory stare...


	25. Chapter 25

"Hey," she hollered at his retreating form, stalking him into the office and slamming the door behind them. "Alright, come on. Say whatever you want to say to me."

He stopped in front of his desk, keeping his back to her and tipping his head towards the ceiling.

"I don't think I have anything to say to you, Catherine." He said with an unsettlingly calm tone.

"Look, I know that you're upset..." His choked out laugh cut her off, but she quickly regrouped her thoughts. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe this isn't about _you_?"

Finally, he turned to shoot her a raised eyebrow.

"Then what is it about?" He challenged sceptically.

"Sara, Gil." She snapped. "It's about _Sara_. Maybe, for once in her life, she's doing something for herself?"

"By breaking up the team again?"

"No, by choosing a supervisor who actually listens to her, a supervisor who supports her!" Catherine raised her voice, waving her hand in his face in frustration.

He stared at her for a whole minute, his blue eyes narrowed in question.

"You think she was right to do this." He realised aloud. She pursed her lips in response.

"I don't think she would have done it if it wasn't right for her." She paraphrased tactfully.

"And of course it works in your favour." He noted. "You get a permanent promotion."

She laughed bitterly, shaking her head.

"Don't do that." She warned. "Don't try to make me feel bad about accepting this – this is on my own merits."

"Your merits and Ecklie's power trip." He scoffed.

Cath clicked her jaw angrily. He was trying his best to provoke her into a reaction, but she was determined not to rise to it. She would not let him ruin this for her.

"The fact that Sara trusts me to take over her supervision has nothing to do with you, your lack of political acumen or Ecklie's dislike of you." She pointed out tensely. "I have spent months winning her over, earning her trust and showing her that she can rely on me when she needs to. Maybe if you hadn't spent the last five years playing games with her heart, you could have done the same."

Having said her piece, and beginning to lose the internal battle with her temper, she spun on her heel and strutted out, leaving him standing in the wake of her rant with his jaw hanging open.

x X x

She almost sailed straight past the locker room when something caught her eye and she backtracked to peer into the dimness.

"Hey." She breathed, stepping into the darkened room. "I've been looking all over for you."

Sara didn't look up from her lap.

"Well, you found me." She said quietly. Catherine joined her sat on the bench and scrutinised her for a second.

"Yeah." She agreed tentatively, struggling to read her current emotional state. "I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?" Sara looked up, but didn't meet her gaze, choosing to stare straight ahead. Catherine leant closer and nudged her gently.

"For my promotion."

A small laugh bubbled out of brunette and Catherine smiled at the sound.

"I didn't realise that Ecklie was going to tell you already." Sara mumbled sheepishly.

"Well he has." Cath nodded, raising an eyebrow at her. "A little forewarning wouldn't have gone amiss, though."

Sara sank her gaze into her lap again, nodding in agreement.

"I'm sorry; I just didn't want to put you in the middle if it wasn't going to work out."

"In the middle of what?" Catherine asked softly. "What's happened between you and Gil?"

"Nothing." Sara finally met her gaze, visibly surprised by the question.

"Then what's all this about?"

"Nothing specific." She shrugged ambiguously, dragging the toe of her boot across the stone floor. "I just felt like things were going well and I didn't want to go back to how things were."

"You know that I wasn't going anywhere, right?" Cath pointed out. "If you wanted to talk to me about something, you still could have, even with Gil as your primary supervisor."

"I know. But it's just ..."

"What?" Cath nudged her again when she trailed off.

"My life has never felt this ... secure." She explained awkwardly. "For the first time, I feel settled. I feel like I belong somewhere and I know what's going to happen from one day to the next. I've never had that before and that's down to you. I guess I just wasn't ready to lose that yet."

Catherine shook her head affectionately at the quiet admission.

"Sara, honey; I'm always going to be here to support you. You know that."

A small smile tugged at Sara's lips.

"Yeah, I guess do." She agreed, seemingly to herself. "I just wanted to make it more official, I guess. In case I ever need ... more support."

Cath wasn't sure what to make of the cryptic explanation, but she didn't get chance to ask before Sara turned to her with a bashful expression.

"I'm sorry if I caused more problems for you and Grissom, that wasn't my intention."

Catherine rolled her eyes, patting her leg gently.

"Don't worry about that." She assured her flippantly. "As long as you realise what you're getting into here – I'm not Grissom; there'll be no slacking with your reports for me."

Sara laughed, picking up on the light-hearted tone to her voice and appreciating the change of topic.

"Understood." She nodded. "I really do appreciate this Catherine. And I promise I have no intention of making life difficult for you – I know you've got a lot riding on this too."

Catherine frowned softly at the younger woman. She had been joking, but it appeared that Sara was quite serious about this. She genuinely wanted this to work out, for both of them.

"Thank you." She hummed. Feeling the need to lighten the mood, she moved her hand from Sara's thigh and threaded their fingers together. "Come on, I think I need a drink to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Sara asked, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Catherine grinned at her.

"My promotion."

x X x

"Ecklie!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, inhaling sharply. It had been a long shift and he was really not in the mood for this, but before he had chance to think up an escape excuse, Grissom had appeared in front of him, his cheeks red and his eyes flaming in anger.

"Gil." He greeted calmly. "What can I do for you?"

"Why are you doing this?" Grissom demanded. Conrad, realising that the hallway was not the right place for this conversation, took him by the sleeve and attempted to guide him into a nearby lab. Gil, however, shook him off and held his ground.

Since it was evident that they were going to have this conversation here and now, he offered a resigned sigh.

"It's what she asked for." He explained, trying to ensure the conversation remained as confidential as possible in such an exposed part of the lab. "If you have a problem with her decision, maybe you should take it up with her."

"Is the lab really going to pay for this?" Grissom challenged. "I can't see the Undersheriff agreeing to alter the budget just because she _asked_.

"Look, I know that Sara and I have had our run-ins in the past," Ecklie acknowledged, lowering his voice. "But she is a damn good CSI. Losing her would be a big loss to the department and the Undersheriff agreed that the cost of increasing Catherine's salary is worth it to avoid us having to advertise for a new CSI and train some young grad-student up to Sara's level."

Grissom stared at him for a long moment, reading between the lines of his answer.

"Did she threaten to quit?" He asked in a low voice.

"Not in so many words, but I got that impression." Ecklie shrugged. "And to be honest, Gil, I think the Undersheriff doesn't want the headache of dealing with a potential lawsuit if Sara did quit because of whatever it is that you've done to upset her."

"I haven't done anything." He blinked, affronted.

"Maybe, maybe not." Conrad shrugged ambivalently, as if he genuinely couldn't care less. "But let's be honest, you haven't always been professional around her either, have you?"

The question was apparently rhetorical, as the Lab Director checked his watch and promptly continued on his path without waiting for an answer.

Which was just as well, since Grissom didn't have one; despite it being the second time in as many hours that someone had accused him of the same thing.

x X x

She had been crying.

Catherine had been so relieved to find Sara in the locker room, she hadn't noticed it at the time, but she realised it now. She had been sitting alone in the dark and she had been crying.

And that wasn't the only thing that had been bothering Cath. Sara's explanation made sense, to a degree. Her early childhood had been full of chaos and violence. Following that, she had spent years in foster care, where her family could change at a day's notice and her future was decided by social workers and judges she had never met.

Even as an adult, she had lived paycheck-to-paycheck in order to fund her mother's care. She probably hadn't ever experienced the kind of stability she currently had. Who could blame her for wanting to hold onto that?

But she got the distinct feeling that there was something more to this decision – something she was hiding from Catherine.

If Sara had noticed the blonde scrutinising her across the table, she hadn't let on, toying distractedly with an elastic band wrapped around her wrist.

"Alright, come on." Cath put her beer down, getting her attention at last. "I know there's something else you're not telling me about all this."

Sara flinched, snapping back to the present from wherever she had been.

"No, there isn't." She denied, picking up her own drink and scratching at a peeling corner of the label.

"Sara, you're not a good liar." Catherine pointed out with a knowing smile. "What's the real reason you asked for me to stay on as your supervisor?"

The brunette's gaze slipped off to the side and she shrugged cagily.

"I told you. I like the way things are going at the moment."

It was still a non-answer, but Catherine found herself unwilling to push it further. For whatever reason, Sara seemed disinclined to discuss it with her, and she knew the young woman well enough to know that attempting to drag it out of her would get her nowhere.

Looking at her tightly-pursed lips and anxious gaze, Cath found herself longing sadly for that glimpse of unguarded-Sara – the Sara she had seen dealing with the circus animals.

As the girl appeared to start retreating back into her quiet state of contemplation, a spontaneous thought popped into Catherine's head and before she had chance to analyse it, her mouth had already run away with itself and voiced it aloud.

"I'm taking Lindsey horse-riding on Saturday – would you like to join us?"

Sara blinked, surprised by the left-field offer. However, to Catherine's relief, her face broke out in the first proper smile she had seen all night.

"Sure, I'd love to." She agreed.

Cath matched her expression, sinking back into the booth with a satisfied nod, still wondering where the impulsive offer had come from.

On the plus side, Lindsey would be thrilled to learn they were going horse-riding at the weekend.


	26. Chapter 26

Catherine stepped out of the car, stretching her legs stiffly. Lindsey clambered out of the backseat and, before her feet ever touched the ground, she was off and running towards the stables.

"Somebody's excited."

Cath turned towards the amused voice behind her and smiled at the sight of Sara approaching in a pair of boots, jeans and a figure-hugging t-shirt, her hair tied back into a ponytail.

"Hey." She greeted cheerfully, looking back in the direction that Lindsey had vanished. "Yeah, she's been dressed and ready to go since before I got home from work."

Sara laughed, raising a hand to wave at the thirteen-year-old as they ambled across the parking lot to join her.

"You know, I never even thought to ask," Catherine realised aloud. "Have you ridden before?"

"Sure." Sara nodded. "When I was at college, I used to spend my vacations in Vermont. I'd ride for hours out there."

Her voice had taken on a wistful sort of tone which Catherine couldn't help but smile at, especially when a guide walked past with a horse trotting along in tow and Sara's face lit up at the sight of the creature.

"Hi!" Lindsey chirped as they finally caught her up. She was stood on the bottom rung of a fence, stroking a brown and white spotted horse. "I want this one."

Cath shot Sara a sideways smile at her enthusiasm.

"Honey, I don't think you get to choose the horse yourself." She corrected. "Come on, why don't we get checked in and we'll see which ones we get given?"

With a small flicker of disappointed, Lindsey hopped off the fence and followed her mother and Sara towards the reception area, which was really more of a shed.

"You never know," Sara suggested optimistically, glancing back at the pretty Appaloosa, who was neighing at the sudden loss of attention. "You might get lucky."

x X x

"I remember now why I don't do this more often." Cath commented, rubbing the inside of her thighs.

Oblivious to her mother's discomfort, Lindsey grinned up at the women.

"Can we come again next weekend?" She asked hopefully.

"We'll see." She hummed. Rolling her eyes at the predictable non-answer, Lindsey muttered something to herself and wandered off to say goodbye to her knew friend.

Catherine turned to smile at Sara, but found the brunette missing from her side.

It didn't take long to spot her, however, leaning over a fence with one hand submerged in a mustang's beautiful mane and the other wrapped around its nose.

Sliding her phone out of her pocket, she snapped a sneaky photo, before wandering over to join her.

"Cute." She commented, reaching out to pet the horse.

"Isn't she." Sara beamed, oblivious to the fact that Catherine was talking about her. "I love horses."

"You don't say." Cath teased playfully.

"When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to the racecourse." She continued without prompting, dragging her knuckles gently up and down the horse's nose, as the animal nickered contentedly. "I loved seeing all the horses ... until one day when one of them fell, and they shot it."

Catherine inhaled sharply, nodding in understanding. She could imagine the kind of impact something like that would have on a sweet young animal-lover like Sara.

"I couldn't go with him again after that." Sara continued sadly, tipping her head against warm fur. "It was years later before I realised that, on those many trips to the track, my father was gambling all our money away. I used to try and offer suggestions to keep the B&B financially in the black, but they never took any notice. I guess it wouldn't have made any difference anyway."

Catherine shook her head forlornly at the idea of little Sara chirping up with business ideas at the breakfast table while her parents threatened each other and her brothers fought over the cereal. It was not a happy picture.

She reached out and placed a gentle hand on Sara's arm, causing the brunette to start. Sara blinked at her, almost surprised to find her stood there, as if she'd forgotten who she was talking to.

"Long time ago now." She mumbled, turning away in embarrassment.

The horse huffed, taking a step closer to the fence and nudging her shoulder with his nose, causing a smile to creep back across her lips.

"Did you know that horses can read human facial expression and remember their mood the next time they see them." She volunteered. "They react better to people they've seen smiling before."

"No." Catherine pursed her lips, attempting to read Sara's own expression right now. "No, I didn't know that."

She hadn't known that, but she wasn't surprised in the slightest by the idea. Seeing the way that beautiful mustang was staring at Sara's face, she could quite believe that it was seeing something that was completely unreadable to her.

x X x

It had been a few hours since their expedition, but Catherine still found herself wincing with twinges of pain every now and then as she made her way down the hallway.

But in spite of that, she had enjoyed herself.

She and Sara had got to talk – even if the brunette still hadn't given away any more clues about her true reason for keeping Catherine on as her supervisor – and she had gathered a couple more morsels of information about her young subordinate's early life.

And, perhaps best of all, she had spent a whole afternoon in Lindsey's company without a single cross word or teenage strop. The child's good mood had lasted right through dinner with Sara after riding and up until Catherine left for work that evening.

No, her mild pain aside, Catherine didn't think anything could sour her own positive mindset tonight.

Unfortunately, as she finally reached the entrance to the locker room, she was quickly proven wrong.


	27. Chapter 27

Stalling outside the locker room, momentarily stunned by what she had overheard, she felt her face flame with a sudden rush of indignant anger.

While she attempted to pick up her jaw from where it lay, the two women walked out of the room, still chucking to themselves, and almost bumped straight into her.

"Oh, sorry." One of them blinked, shooting her a quick smile before they dodged around her and continued on their path, oblivious to the reason for her loitering.

She turned, narrowing her eyes at their retreating forms, before finally managing to regain some semblance of composure. Straightening up to her full height, she pushed her shoulders back and rounded the corner into the darkened room.

Sara was sat on the bench, her head bowed, in almost exactly the same position as she had been last time Catherine found her in here. The time she had been crying to herself.

Now that Catherine thought about it, she realised that she had passed one of those women in the hallway that day, too, coming from the direction of the locker room. Evidence without context ... it hadn't meant anything at the time.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat, getting her companion's attention. "What was that?"

Sara's head shot up, her eyes flashing from Catherine's face to the door, where the two swing shift CSIs had disappeared just a moment ago. A blush instantly fell over her cheeks at realising that she had been eavesdropping.

"Nothing," she plastered a smile on her face, but it was half-hearted at best. "It was nothing."

Catherine cocked her head to the side, her expression remaining stoic and impossible to read.

"Nothing, huh?" She echoed, nodding slowly as ambled further into the room. "Well that's funny, because it sounded like blatant homophobia to me."

Sara visibly stiffened, her gaze sinking into her lap.

Taking a seat beside her on the bench, Catherine attempted fruitlessly to catch her eye.

"Sara, is there something you'd like to tell me?" She asked, softening her voice.

"Cat, really, it's nothing." Sara offered an embarrassed laugh, shaking her head. She attempted to push herself off the bench, but Cath caught her wrist, holding her firmly in place.

"Sara." She warned.

Unable to retract her arm, the brunette finally, albeit reluctantly, met her questioning stare.

"Alright," she sagged back down sadly. "I'm sorry. I ... I wasn't deliberately not telling you guys, I swear. I just ... I didn't want my personal life to become water-cooler gossip."

Catherine stared at her for a long moment, trying to assess what exactly the younger woman was apologising for.

"Sara, I don't care about your love life!" She exclaimed, tightening her hold on her friend's wrist. "But I do care that you're being subject to this kind of abuse! Why didn't you tell me?"

Sara shrugged quietly.

"Because it's not a big deal." She explained when it became apparent that Catherine wanted more than that.

"Yes, it is." She countered bluntly. "They have no right to say that, to you or anyone else."

"Cat, really, it's fine." Sara assured her softly, finally retracting her hand. "I can handle it. Please, don't get involved."

Catherine inhaled and exhaled a deep breath, attempting to reign in her bubbling anger.

"Sara ... if you walked in here one day and overheard Warrick being subject to racial abuse, would you be able to just sit back and let it continue? Or would you stand up for him?"

"Of course I'd stand up for him." Sara frowned. "But this is different..."

"No, it's not." Catherine cut her off. "And I'm not going to stand by and let it continue. How long has it been going on for?"

"About six months." She confessed meekly, accepting that she wasn't going to get out of this conversation anytime soon. "It wasn't so bad at first, just the occasional comment or dirty look. But, lately I guess it's been escalating ..."

She trailed off, letting the blonde's imagination fill in the blanks.

Cath nodded tensely, sinking her teeth into her lower lip in thought.

"Sara, does this have anything to do with why you wanted me to stay on as your supervisor, rather than Grissom?"

"Maybe." She conceded shyly, drawing a slow nod of understanding from the other woman.

She'd suspected that there was something deeper behind the request and the insinuation that Sara might need more support in the near future, but she had to admit that the possibility of her being the victim of homophobia in the workplace wasn't even on her radar.

"I'd rather Grissom not find out, if it's all the same to you." Sara continued hopefully, casting her eyes back towards her boss' face.

Catherine considered her appeal for a long moment. Eventually, she reached out to crook a finger under Sara's chin, tilting her head up to hold her gaze.

"From now on," she instructed, "if they say or do _anything_, you tell me straight away."

"Cath," Sara attempted to slide her gaze to the side, but Catherine held her firm.

"Anything," she repeated sternly. "You come to _me_."

x X x

"Natalie Cooper and Vicki Harrison." She declared, striding into the office without knocking.

Ecklie looked up, perturbed by the interruption, and stared at her for a full minute before resuming his work.

"They're on Swing." He said needlessly. "What about them?"

"I caught them offering homophobic abuse to another member of staff."

The calm assertion caused his pen to slip on the paperwork he was filling out and he looked up again, startled.

"You did?" He asked, although he need not have bothered. The scalding look in her eye and clenched jaw were evidence enough that she was pissed about something.

Standing up, he scampered around his desk and ushered her out of the doorway, allowing him to close it for some privacy.

"Okay." He hummed, leaning back against the edge of his desk. "Who was it aimed at?"

"That's not important." She answered reflexively. "And they would prefer not to be outed at work because of their actions."

"But Natalie and Vicki know that they're..."

"Yes." She said tightly. "I can give you a statement of what I heard. That should be sufficient for you to take the necessary disciplinary action against them."

"Yes, please do." He nodded absently, already trying to work out the best way to handle this. Workplace disagreements were easy, but discrimination in the workplace had to be handled carefully, lest it spiral out of the workplace and into the public domain.

The last thing he needed was someone venting on social media – or God forbid, to the actual media – that the Las Vegas Crime Lab had failed to appropriately handle such a sensitive issue.

"I'll speak to their supervisor and we'll make sure it's dealt with." He assured her.

"You'd better." She replied in that same carefully clipped tone. "Because if I catch them at it again, _I'll _deal with it. And that won't end well for them; or your current good standing with the Sheriff."

He held her gaze, sensing the genuine threat behind her words. She also knew all too well how spectacularly this could backfire on him if he didn't get it right. Slowly, he reached past her to open the door.

"Thank you for bringing it to my attention." He said professionally. "I can take care of it from here."

x X x

He had been up and down the full list of staff who worked in the lab twice and was still non-the-wiser. There were a few people he had question marks over, but none that were particularly jumping out at him as being obvious targets.

Catherine had already provided her written statement of what she heard, but it would be far too easy for Natalie and Vicki to simply deny it and without the actual victim to corroborate the allegation, his hands would be pretty tied as far as any kind of disciplinary was concerned.

However, it stood to reason that this probably wasn't an isolated incident.

There was only one member of the lab that he knew for a fact was gay, and that was Bobby Dawson. There were probably several more, but it had honestly never been something he'd given any degree of thought to until now. Other people's personal lives were of no concern to Conrad Ecklie.

Since Catherine had made it clear that whoever it was wanted to remain 'in the closet' for the time being, he knew it couldn't be Bobby who was the victim in this instance.

But that didn't necessarily mean that he hadn't been, at some point. So, after much deliberation, he decided it was as good a place as any to start in trying to establish the extent of the issue.

Tapping on the door, he waited for the tech to look up from her microscope before entering, a tight smile on his lips.

"Bobby," he greeted. "How are things in the ballistics world?"

"Fine." Bobby answered suspiciously, eyeing the Lab Director as he meandered around the room, absently assessing the weapons in their secure cases. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Ecklie smiled at the polite request. Of all the techs and CSIs, Dawson was one who rarely gave him any issues. He liked Bobby.

"Well, there was something I was hoping to discuss with you actually," he disclosed, lowered his voice.

"Okay." Bobby drawled, leaning back against the bench behind him and crossing his arms protectively.

Ecklie glanced into the hallway, checked that they were not being overlooked by an curious passers-by.

"I wanted to ask you, has anyone here ever said anything or done anything to make you feel ... uncomfortable?"

"Uncomfortable?" Bobby frowned, not understand the question.

"Yeah, I mean ... has anyone ever said anything that you found ... offensive, perhaps regarding your personal life?"

Finally starting to see where he was going with it, Bobby's expression hardened imperceptibly behind his perpetually pleasant mask.

"Well, sir, I certainly wouldn't want to get anyone in any trouble..."

"It's alright, Bobby." Ecklie reassured him. "Anything you say can remain anonymous. It's just that there's been a complaint made and I need to follow up on it."

"Really?" The Texan blinked, surprised. "Well, in that case, there are a couple of people who have made ... insensitive comments, in the past."

"And, who would they be?" Ecklie pressed.

Bobby mimicked his earlier action of checking the hallway, suddenly feeling subconscious. Snatching up a piece of paper, he scribbled down a couple of names and handed it to the boss, who read it with a sad sigh.

"Thank you." He nodded, not in the least bit surprised. "Would you be prepared to provide a statement regarding these 'insensitive' comments?"

Bobby pursed his lips, an unusually nervous look falling across his features.

"I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you, sir." He answered graciously.

"If you're worried about repercussions, I can keep you name out of it."

"I appreciate that." He continued. "But I'd just as soon not make a fuss. Thank you."

Sensing that he was being dismissed from the lab, Ecklie took the hint and nodded in understanding.

"If you change your mind," he said, offering a glimpse of genuine concern behind his usual 'about to hold a press conference' appearance. "My door is always open."


	28. Chapter 28

**Apologies, this is a bit of a filler chapter  
**

**x X x**

If Sara knew that Catherine was watching her, she wasn't letting on.

Eventually, when it became apparent that she was going to have to make the first move, the blonde pushed herself off the doorframe and ambled into the room.

"Making progress?" She asked, placing her hands on the bench and leaning down over Sara's shoulder.

The younger woman started, indicating that she indeed had _not_ known she was being observed.

"Yeah, I think so." She cleared her throat, showing her supervisor the work she had done so far.

As Catherine listened to her update, nodding periodically in approval, she took the opportunity to scrutinise her young friend.

Sara was in work-mode, which automatically made her harder to read, but there were little giveaways; the deliberate lack of eye-contact, the nervous twitches of her fingers as she pointed to certain parts of her report, the subdued tone of voice.

When she came to a natural rest and promptly turned back to the work she had been engrossed in, Catherine seized her opportunity.

"So, I spoke to Ecklie." She offered pointedly, causing Sara's movements to cease. "You shouldn't have any more problems from Natalie and Vicki, but if you do, you let me know."

"You didn't have to do that." Sara mumbled sheepishly, looking away.

Catherine studied her for an uncomfortably long moment, before slowly slinking into the seat beside her, making a point of keeping one possessive arm draped across the back of her companion's chair.

"Sara," she called out gently. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The brunette shrugged, keeping her gaze low.

Sitting forward, Catherine used her free hand to grip Sara's wrist where it lay on the bench, dragging her back and forth over it.

"Would it make this easier for you if I told you that I already knew?"

Sara flinched, shooting her a startled look.

"You ... you did?"

Catherine offered a sympathetic smile and a small nod.

"Well, let's just say it wasn't exactly a shock."

"Does anyone else know ... or suspect?" Sara asked nervously, her eyes watching Catherine's fingertips caress her slender arm.

"I don't know, honey, I've never asked them." Cath laughed softly. "You know, it's nothing you need to be ashamed of."

"I know that." She mumbled.

"Then why all the secrecy?"

Sara shrugged.

"If you knew, how come you never said anything?" She deflected.

"Because it's none of my business." Cath laughed softly, perplexed by the question. "Honey, as long as you're happy and safe, I really don't care who you're with."

"Oh." This seemed to puzzle Sara, who frowned at the thought that Catherine's interest in her love life was truly welfare-based and not for the purposes of gossip. "Well, in that case, thank you."

Catherine shook her head in bemusement at the obvious confusion she had caused. Patting her hand gently, she stood up.

"Remember what I said – any more issues, you tell me."

Sara smiled, visibly more relaxed this time.

"Yeah, I will."

x X x

He dithered outside the office for a moment, twisting his hands nervously in front of him.

He didn't really know what he was hoping to achieve from this. Even if she knew something, she wouldn't tell him.

He should just retreat back to his lab and forget this whole thing.

"What can I do for you, Bobby?"

The question, called calmly from within the office, stilled his attempts at escape and instead he sloped bashfully inside, where Catherine was staring expectantly at him.

"Uh," he started ineloquently. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." She echoed curiously. "Was there a particular reason you were lurking outside my office?"

"No." He answered instinctively, before cursing himself for it. "I mean, yes there was."

She raised a questioning eyebrow, nodding for him to elaborate. Shuffling closer to the desk, he lowered his voice conspiratorially.

"I just wanted to check ... is everything okay with Sara?"

"Sara?" Cath frowned, surprised by the subject matter. "Sure, why?"

"Well, I saw the two of you talking earlier and it looked kind of intense and I just thought ..." he trailed off, feeling his cheeks heat up under Catherine's fierce scrutiny. "You know what, it doesn't matter."

As he spun on his heel to leave, Catherine rose from her seat to stop hip.

"Wait." She called. "What were you going to say?"

Reluctantly, he crept back in and released a reluctant sigh.

"I was just wondering whether it had anything to do with the visit I had from Ecklie yesterday." He confessed at last.

Cath cocked her head to the side, intrigued.

"It might." She admitted tactfully, gesturing to the chair opposite the desk and sinking back down into her own seat. "What did he want?"

Accepting the offer and sitting down, Bobby fidgeted for a moment before making himself comfortable.

"He wanted to know whether I've had any problems with anyone in the lab – particularly, if anyone had ever done or said anything which offended me."

Catherine pursed her lips, nodding in understanding. Typical Conrad – he wasn't going to take her word for it' not without digging up a little corroborating evidence first. And, naturally, Bobby would be the first place he would go.

"And, have they?"

"I might have mentioned a couple of names to him." The tech replied diplomatically.

"A couple of names on Swing?" She guessed, earning her a tight smile from him.

"I think you already know that." He mused, causing her to laugh softly.

"Yeah, I do." She hummed in agreement. Sitting forward, she folded her hands on the desk and took them back to the point of his visit. "Sara's fine. She's ... it's dealt with."

"Oh." He nodded, somewhat disbelievingly. "Good. That's good."

"Was that all you needed?" She queried when he didn't move, choosing instead to frown to himself.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, yes, that was it." He babbled, bouncing out of his chair and stumbling around it towards the door. "I was just a little worried about her, you know – if they'd been on her case too. So, I'm glad it's sorted. So, yeah – thanks, Catherine."

She chuckled at his embarrassed rambling when he finally disappeared from her view.

However, her amusement was quickly silenced when he reappeared a moment later, suddenly sombre again.

"Hey Catherine," he said softly, his smooth Texan voice unusually serious again. "Just do me a favour, keep a close eye on her. Those girls ... they've got a mean streak that runs pretty deep. However it's been 'handled', it may not be enough."


	29. Chapter 29

The sun reflected off the water, casting her entire view in a gloriously bright orange glow and rendering her virtually blind.

So, it came as something of a shock when she finally waded her way to the shoreline and found someone grinning at her from the sand.

"Hey!" She greeted, peeling her wet hair out of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see why you've been leaving work on time recently." Nick half-joked, holding out her towel, which he had found draped over a nearby rock.

She took it with gratitude, half-heartedly drying her hair, while he unzipped her wetsuit for her.

"Fancy a swim?" She teased, drawing a bright laugh from the Texan.

"No, no thanks. I prefer to do my swimming in a pool."

"Wimp." She nudged him playfully.

After managing to peel herself out of her wetsuit and wrap her sarong-style skirt around her waist, she turned to him with a lazy smile.

"Coffee?"

"Don't you want to get changed first?" He asked, gesturing to the fact that she was still in her bikini top, with water glistening off her shoulders and dripping from the tips of her curls.

"Nah." She scrunched up her nose, pointing up the bank behind them to the row of nearby shops. "There's a really cool little coffee place up there. I'm buying?"

Nick chuckled again, enthralled by this uncharacteristically free side of his usually stoic colleague.

"Alright, let's go." He indicated for her to lead the way and shuffled across the sand after her, struggling to keep his balance on the shifting ground. "You sure you don't want to get dressed? I don't want you to catch a cold."

She threw her head back with another infectious laugh at his attempts at protectiveness.

"You sound like my grandmother!"

x X x

Catherine had spent the best part of two days while Sara was off work with Bobby's warning ringing in her ears. As long as the brunette was away from the lab, she had no idea how she was or who she was engaging with, and that left her deeply unsettled.

So, when she walked into the break room and found the object of her concern sat laughing jovially with the boys, she was immediately filled with a sense of relief.

"Hey guys," she greeted cheerfully, gaining a nod in response from the team without them ever breaking the flow of their conversation.

"What, you didn't feel like joining her?" Warrick asked.

"I tried to persuade him, but he didn't want to get his feet wet!" Sara mocked, causing Nick to swat harmlessly at her.

"I'd have gone swimming with you," Greg chimed in. "Where was my invite?"

"Swimming?" Catherine enquired, feeling somewhat left out of the conversation as she helped herself to a cup of coffee, grateful to find that Greg had got to the pot first tonight.

"Yeah, Nick came over to the lake today to interrupt my morning swim." Sara explained.

As the younger members of the team continued to joke with one another, Catherine felt her earlier relief suddenly ebb away, quickly replaced with a new and inexplicable feeling.

"You, uh, you saw her swimming?" She clarified as ambivalently as she could, sinking onto a stool. "You've never let me watch you swim."

"Come down sometime." Sara shrugged happily. "Maybe I can entice you in instead, since Nick was too much of a wuss to play."

Before Nick could refute the slant on his bravery, Grissom wandered into the room, with Lou Vartann in tow.

"Hey guys," the detective greeted, to a murmur of hellos. "Sara, could I borrow you? We've had a break in your rape case."

Sara shot Grissom a look, who nodded his consent, and she quickly hopped up from the couch.

"I'll be right back." She assured the boss, scampering out after Vartann.

Catherine watched her go, before flicking her gaze towards the boys again.

"So, what took you to the lake?" She asked with a casual tone that didn't reach her cool blue orbs.

"Curiosity." Nick mused, pursing his lips. "She's been in such a good mood recently, I wanted to see why."

"And?" The blonde pressed, although she already knew the answer. Sara had been acting like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, simply because one had.

"Man, you should see her out there." He chuckled. "She's like a completely different person – she's so relaxed when she's in the water. I don't know quite why, but moving house has really done her some good."

Grissom, who had been monitoring this conversation closely, cocked his head to the side.

"She was _in_ the lake?" He queried with a small frown.

"She swims on a morning." Catherine volunteered absently. "That's why she moved up there, for the water sports."

"I'll have to check it out sometime." Warrick nodded with a touch of admiration to his voice. "I'm kinda interested to see what skills she's got on a set of water skis."

"Beach party!" Greg grinned at the prospect. "Challenge you to a race, Nick?"

While the boys descended into yet another competition-based conversation, Catherine had taken to staring into the distance, a perplexed look on her face. So distracted was she, she never even noticed the careful blue eyes scrutinising her from across the room.

x X x

She exhaled, blowing a stubborn strand of hair out of her eyes in frustration. Between the flies and the hot Vegas sun beating down on her, she was beginning to pine for Sara and Warrick's case – extreme decomp aside, at least they were indoors.

"So," Grissom said casually, interrupting her internal rant. "Sara's happier now that she's moved?"

"What?" She frowned at the random statement, pushing herself to her feet and wiping the sweat from the back of her neck.

"Sara – it seems she's enjoying her new home."

"Yeah, she is." Cath agreed, suspicious by the sudden introduction of this subject after such a long period of silence from the entomologist.

He nodded slowly, and for a moment she thought that that was all he had to say on the matter. She was just about to resume her work, when he spoke up again, a questioning lilt to his voice.

"You didn't seem particularly happy about that yesterday."

She scowled, shaking her head in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"In the break room." He clarified. "When the boys were talking about her swimming in the lake, you seemed ... annoyed about it?"

She stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment, before finally letting her gaze slink off to the side.

"Of course I'm happy for her." She stated. "I'm the one who encouraged her to move out there."

He blinked, apparently surprised by this revelation. Then again, he had been surprised to learn that Sara was moving at all, especially given the jump in rent compared to her old apartment; but he had decided that it was not his place to ask how she could afford such a sudden change of residence.

He continued to appraise Catherine, while she did her damndest to ignore his piercing look. Finally, when it became apparent that he wasn't going to get anything further from her, he appeared to shrug it off and sloped over to examine a piece of evidence which had caught his eye.

She released a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding and tried to shake off the feeling of judgement that his questions had left behind.

Every time she thought that she knew Gil as well as anybody could know him, he managed to surprise her. Evidently, his people skills were improving! Without her even realising that he was taking note, he had managed to read her like a book.

For he was right, as much as it pained her to admit it. Of course, she was thrilled that Sara was enjoying her new home and that the move had relaxed her. But she had been annoyed yesterday in the break room. Not at Sara's newfound emotional liberation – no, it was her friendliness with the boys that had grated on her.

Although she couldn't begin to explain why, she was jealous of them.


End file.
